Something wicked this way comes
by Robin Moto
Summary: Sequel to Joey Taylor's Y&H PoA. Another troubling summer for Yugi, Yami and Joey as they are invited to America by Pegasus, but will the entire gang have a summer they want to forget? Scattered across the globe, how will the friends survive this threat?
1. Chapter 1

AN This follows directly after Joey Taylor's story Yugi and Harry and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and is of the summer between the end of their third year and the beginning of their forth. Enjoy.

* * *

Harry stared at the too-prefect houses and wondered if anything had changed.

The Dursleys hadn't, except Dudley was bigger, Vernon was redder and Petunia seemed to have tinted her hair, was it going white already?

He kept everything concealed behind his blank face, yes-sir, no-sir, keep your head down, hide everything, and never let anyone see they've gotten to you.

He wanted to go home.

Home was friends, home was magic, and home was freedom.

Freedom to be normal.

He suppressed the snort, normal; he bet his relatives would kill him if they knew he considered Hogwarts a whole lot more normal than their home.

Not that he had felt free this past year. Dementors kept him trapped, Dumbledore had kept him trapped.

Home was Sirius Black. His Godfather.

Letters; His friends had promised, Lots and lots of letters. He would not be left without information again. Hermione even said she would number her letters and alternate between owl and snail mail so he would know if he was missing any, and Kari and Yugi had agreed that it was a good idea, but would stick with snail mail since it was a bit far for owls to fly. Ron had just looked at Hermione like she was crazy… again.

Mokuba had said something about mail drops and muggle to magic mail, and Harry wasn't even sure how Kaiba's little brother had gotten into the conversation, except that Mokuba and Ginny had basically started to hang on the fringes of their group, coming and going as they pleased.

It had been better for the last week of term, when everyone was friends again and all the fighting had stopped, and even Ron and Hermione avoided disagreements. Joey and Kari were on speaking terms again, if not as friendly, Yugi had gotten some sort of promise out of Yami and both seemed… if not happier then content to let it lie, and Ombre had stopped hovering over Kari.

Home, ten weeks until he could back to Hogwarts, but he lived in hope that the Weasley's would let him stay again.

"Boy."

Uncle Vernon was waiting, seeming to get more impatient by the second.

"Yes Sir?"

"Here's your list of chores for the week." Vernon handed over a thin piece of paper and Harry scanned the list. Its shortness had looked promising, until he saw the words 'garden shed, clean and tidy everything,' and realised the list was a whole lot more work than its shortness implied. "Well?"

"Now Sir?"

Vernon snarled, "No boy, get your stuff away first, chores tomorrow."

Home was where the heart was and his was far, far away.

* * *

Yugi stepped off the plane with a bounce in his step, a marked difference to how he had been just a few days ago when he had been falling asleep half the time, and eating his own weight in food the rest.

Joey and Yami trailed behind slightly, both seemed the worse for wear after the long flight, although not as badly off as some of the passengers. There had been turbulence, more than was usual, and while Yugi had slept right through it Yami had been questioning the safety of these modern machines, not that you would have known it unless you had noticed the altogether too tight grip Yami had kept on the hand-rest. Joey on the other hand was starving, and never before had he missed the heavy but filling food of Hogwarts quite as much, the meal served during the flight had done little towards satisfying his hunger.

Joey ran his fingers through his hair once again, "Do you think this over-priced Airport might have some real food before we go through customs?"

"Doubt it, Heathrow just had those junk machines, and Domino's Airport just had the tasteless hot drinks. Why should JFK have anything more?" Yami replied with a hint of dry humour, Joey's appetite was well known and much fun poked at him for it.

"I think I might have something if you're hungry Joey," Yugi said, and unzipped his carryon.

"Nah Yuge, I'll be fine. I can't take any of your chocolate." Joey replied, as his stomach growled, revealing the lie.

"It's okay; I got some at the coach stop. It's not Honeydukes just something called Galaxy. Kari said they were good, right?" Yugi looked up and held out three plastic wrapped chocolate bars.

Yami shrugged, and Joey took a bar and stared at it, "It's weird; there barely any plastic at school and the village didn't have any at all, but anywhere else you go it's everywhere."

"Come on, Customs, luggage, Tea. You know Tea doesn't like to be kept waiting." Yami poked Joey to get him moving again, and Yugi's face lit up.

'Tea…' He thought, and bounced ahead.

* * *

"Home again." Kari sighed, stepping off the plane. She turned her face up to greet the setting sun. England might be where she was born, but she considered Domino her home.

"Not yet, first there's customs, then luggage, then the drive to Kaiba Corp, then the taxi home, then collapsing into our beds. After I wake up, then I'll be home." Ombre replied, prodding Kari to move out the way.

"I'm going to miss the gang." Kari replied, ignoring the stream of words.

"I won't" Kaiba declared, "And Ombre isn't the only one who wants out of here Ironhide." He stalked off, heading towards to small car that would transport them to the Airport proper.

"Home, home, home." Sang the younger Kaiba, again and again and again. Ombre wondered if it was worth the effort to hit him.

* * *

Hermione stared out the window of the car and wondered when her parents had become strangers, and why it felt like she had left her real family back at the station. Friends; and they were more than friends with each passing year.

Three years ago if you had asked if Hermione had anyone she considered a friend, the answer would have been no, or at best maybe.

No, that was wrong. She had had lots of people she considered her friend, until Hogwarts had shown her, until Harry had shown her, just how empty those friendships were.

Her friends were willing to die for her. A single tear rolled down her face.

Even when they hated her, they were willing to die for her, and she for them.

She couldn't imagine her life without her friends.

No. That was wrong, again! Wouldn't Ron laugh if he could see inside her head? He understood friendship so easily, he had had friends for years, and he had so much more practice at this than her.

No. He had brothers, and his sister. They were siblings, altogether different from friends. Who else did Ron chose to be with? He was no better at this friendship thing than she was, he treated them like they were more siblings, siblings he liked as opposed to Percy, it didn't matter if they fought; family was family, it couldn't be broken.

Friendship could.

But it could be mended too.

Before she hadn't known that, before Hogwarts, before her real friends.

She still didn't understand. She had dozens of friends now, from her best friends to her casual friends. Somehow she had even managed to be friends with Parvati and Lavender, and she couldn't imagine her 10 year old self ever doing that. They weren't good friends, but they could talk, (and talk and talk and talk), and she could listen and nod in the right places.

But her real friends; Harry, Ron, Kari, Ombre, Yugi, Yami and even Joey. They would die for her, risk their lives for each other, just as she would. If you paid attention then they saved each other so many times that the group had to be crisscrossed with life debts, but they would never call on them, because they knew they would never need to.

And now they were scattered across the world until the summer ended.

Maybe…

She retrieved the letter she had received just a few days ago, and looked to her parents; her mother was fiddling with the radio while her father had all his attention on the road.

Home. She would ask when she got home.

* * *

Ron was hungry, and wanted out. Ginny was moping beside him, playing with her Gyffindor scarf and staring without seeing out the window. Fred and George were in high spirits, and Ron wondered how long it would be before their next prank. Percy was discussing his exams with their Mother, who kept saying things like, "That's nice dear," or "I'm sure you did fine."

The Knight bus might have been fast, but for Ron it couldn't be fast enough.

He wanted out.

The bus was too hot, too crowded, too… busie.

Surrounded by people and already lonely. Ron looked at the bar and wondered if he could hit his head against it while the bus was skidding every which way. He missed his friends already, which had to be some sort of record.

No, the record was made while he was on the train and realised he was missing his friends while they were sitting right beside him, or maybe when he pretended to grin while watching his friends depart, or maybe it was during the year while he was missing his friends while shouting at them.

No school work, no homework, no bossy Hermione, or teachers watching him, no Snape, no detentions, no Dementors and there would be Quidditch, and home cooking, games, Bill and Charlie were coming home, and his room to himself (for a bit).

Harry and Hermione might come over to stay, and there would be the Quidditch world cup, they had to see that.

Ron continued to list the good points until the Knight bus reached their stop.

No friends, alone with my siblings, no chess unless Dad was free, or Bill, no Duel Monsters, not that he could afford the cards, but then neither could Joey really, no friends.

What would Harry think if I sent a letter tomorrow?

I mean it's for his benefit really, isn't it?

Ron smiled as he placed his trunk in his room.

Maybe I'll just have a quick go on my broom, while Mum is cooking tea.

There's plenty of time.

* * *

"Yugi!" was shouted at full volume across the airport in Tea's voice. The girl in question was jumping up and down and waving, and added "Joey! Yami!" after a moment. The young man standing beside her just shook his head.

Yugi smiled, while Joey went for the full out grin, and Yami raised a hand, a much less energetic wave than Tea's had been. Still the three young men made their way through the crowds as quickly as possible, which meant a lot of apologises.

If there was a moment hesitation when the friends greeted each other no one else noticed as Tea glomped Yugi, Tristan clasped Yami's arm, and managed to thump Joey on the back.

"Did you hear? I'm a professional dancer. I mean there's an audition every year, all I had to do was past my exams well enough to get an audition, but they hardly ever take second years on professionally, I thought I would be waiting tables again this summer, but I got a part! It's only for two weeks, but Pegasus…" Tea's monologue stalled as she realised whose name she had used. Her friends had many reasons to distrust him.

"Pegasus sent Yugi a letter." Joey said; his voice sceptical, the use of Yugi rather than Yuge pinpointing his discomfort.

"I think Pegasus can be trusted… to a point. His judgement is terrible, but I don't think he means us any harm." Yami looked at Yugi as he talked, and Yugi nodded slightly.

"So are you going to do the tournament?" Tristan asked.

A trio of yes's followed that question, "Even if it is a bit unfair on these poor Americans" Joey joked.

"I'm afraid I just duel the last game, I'm the secret prize." Yami explained.

"Well… I have a job." Tristan began, "You won't believe this but the company that usually runs security for the tournaments decided that since you three always attract trouble they might as well hire someone who is always in the middle of it."

Joey laughed, "You're security? I don't believe it."

"Believe it Joey, but I'm undercover, have been at all the tournaments in the past year, no one who is looking to cause trouble looks twice at me since they know I'm a fan of the game. They are even paying for my education so I have a cover story."

"Even with everything we've been through I don't think I quite believe it."

"At least I'm not working with the government." Tristan shrugs.

"But if there is some creep that comes after us, what are you going to do?" Yugi asked concerned.

"Depends, I'm more so that the higher ups know what and who to keep people away from, and to report things like kidnappings, or anyone who raises alarm bells. My instructions actually include, if in the event of unexplained phenomena that could be termed magic, please call in a situation 4, if a sit 4 is called please note no assistance will be forthcoming but we'll keep the area clear of civilians."

"So should you be telling us?"

"Guys, the world would have to end before I'll believe you to be a danger to others. Targets on the other hand…" The sounds of a Tristan Joey wrestling match could be heard from the other side of the car park.

* * *

Ryou had waited until everyone had left the station before making his own way. Not that they noticed, he had just headed to the nearest café as soon as he got off the platform. Without robes and looking his real age there was little to notice about Ryou Bakura, except his near white hair, and that was easily hidden with a bandana.

He looked like a dozen other students passing through, from his well worn clothes, down to his far newer but still battered suitcase.

The fact he drank his coffee like a pro that had spent rather too long away from real coffee only added to the image.

A familiar weight hung around his neck, and his mind counted the minutes until he could take the nearest fireplace. His hands itched to check that he still had the pouch of floo powder, and the annoyance at not being able to Apparate there washed over him.

Coffee finished he stood up, smiled at the counter girl and wandered out the door, seemingly aimlessly. It took him thirty minutes to find the place, and twenty more minutes of wandering before he was sure that no one had followed him.

The door opened at his touch.

Well it wasn't the nearest Wizarding fireplace. There was one at the station.

Bakura didn't trust it. Draco didn't trust the floo powder supplied there. Ryou was just fed up with fighting.

For far too many years had he worn the Ring. There was only so long he could hold up, only so many times he could win the fight. Now he just fought when it was life or death, or when it was about his friends. He wasn't about to fight over how he would get…

There was a familiar blankness in his mind. It should have chilled him, but he was almost numb to it now. He had once wondered what would happen to him when his whole mind was nothing but blankness. He had asked Bakura once, in a fit of anger. Bakura had withdrawn from that fight but the next one… the next one had left Ryou shattered.

He had never brought it up again.

For a while he had had freedom of a sort from the Ring. He still didn't understand why, and once again he had started to avoid thoughts on the matter, whenever he returned to them there was the familiar blankness.

He pulled on the drawstring of the bag of Floo powder.

Floating; floating in the shadows.

"Ryou?" Fingers waved in front of his face. Familiar fingers.

The weight was gone.

"Where am I?" The question escaped, he didn't expect an answer from the owner of the fingers.

"Malfoy manor." A young voice said. Ryou turned to see who it was, Draco, he should have recognised the voice.

_How? You have as little to do with Bakura and Draco as possible._

Because as little as possible was a large amount when the Ring was involved. The memories rushed in, and Ryou would have paled if he wasn't already as pale as he could go.

"Why… why am I here?" Ryou asked, hating himself for being so weak.

Bakura's face flickered, he Ryou hadn't been watching he would have missed the moment of conflict, "Come on, I'll show you your room." Bakura replied, and dragged Ryou out of the room, Draco trailing.

* * *

In a room that wasn't all that far away in the grand scheme of things a young woman paced. A piece of paper was clutched in her hands and she stood divided.

"Three years, it's been three years Kari, aren't we friends anymore?" The woman muttered, tears freely falling down her face.

There were no longer any late night phone calls, there hadn't been for three years, no more emails, no more text messages, and the letters were few and far between.

It wouldn't have mattered to most; friendships often fell apart over long distances, but this woman felt like she was about to make a choice that would change the rest of her life.

Her parents had tried to talk her out of both choices. They wanted her to take the safe option.

The visions were coming quicker now. There were many focus points.

She even recognised some.

Kari had been easy.

Yugi had been hard.

Kaiba had been harder.

Harry Potter she had had to look for.

The others… well she had yet to find them, but she would, she always did in the end, or rather about five seconds before the end.

Her heart hurt.

Kari, her heart screamed that she had to help her friend, even if they were no longer friends. The only problem was she had no idea where Kari was. Kari's name was clearly printed on a headstone and the date… less than a year away.

Mazes, magic, monsters and a scream. No, not a scream, many so very many, all merging together.

Harry she could find, he would be at Hogwarts.

Kari…

The young woman collapsed against her bed, sobs racking her body, Kari was going to die and she couldn't even find her in time to save her.

It came down to a choice, the magical world or Kari.

The letter drifted down onto the floor.

_To Robyn,_

_Well done on achieving your first, we are all very proud of you and I've put in a good word with Headmaster Dumbledore, you should hear from him or Deputy Headmistress McGonagall within the next few days, I'm sure that they'll want all the help they can get with all the events going on this year.

* * *

_

Tea's place wouldn't have held all of them, it was barely big enough for her, but Pegasus had helped there as well, providing rooms for the four boys at a local hotel called the White Horse. It wasn't very big, but it was close to both Tea's place and the theme park where they were holding the tournament.

Breakfast proved to be an experience, not due to the food but some of the remarks of the waitress…

"Ahh, you know that nice young man Max don't you?" The server, an older woman, said after finding out who they were. "Such a nice man, he does drink a bit too much but I think he misses the young miss. I still remember those two when they first found this place, hiding from her family they were, came in for a cup of tea and decided to stay."

The boys shared a glance and knew that if Tea was here she would have leapt onto that clue to Pegasus's past in moments.

"Does he visit often?" Yugi ventured forth.

"Every couple of months usually, he's been staying here the last week, but I didn't need to tell you that, we won't see him past noon poor dear."

As the woman moved away from their table to deliver toast to another set of guests the friends share a look.

"You know, I feel a whole lot less safer sleeping in the same building as Pegasus." Joey said, his knife jabbing the muffin as if looking for the hidden poison.

"He's not going to attack us in our sleep." Tristan tried to assured him.

"He's been trying to be nice." Yugi said, grabbing one of the tiny tubs of jam on the table.

* * *

Out of all the tasks Harry had been set the gardening was mildly pleasant. Cleaning and tidying was alright, it was easy enough that his mind could wonder without too much trouble, cooking required focus and was his least favourite just because he seldom got the eat what he made and Petunia would hover over him.

Gardening took time, it couldn't be rushed, and Petunia would leave him to it for hours as long as he looked busy.

Gardening also meant he got to shower.

He let his mind slip into waiting mode, feeling the hours tickle away, just waiting until something happened to prove that Hogwarts wasn't just a dream.

He moved to the roses, massive heads of pinks, in all different phases of flowering, except for one pale bud that hadn't even thought about blossoming yet, a green white bud. "Stay white." He whispered to it, and started to remove the dead heads.

* * *

When Tea met her friends outside their hotel she knew something was wrong.

"Not enough breakfast guys?" She asked, keeping her tone as light as possible.

"Can we just go?" Joey asked, eyeing the doors as if expecting something to jump out at him.

"Umm, sure. I've got practice later, where do you want to go first?"

"Arcade?"

Tea rolled her eyes, "Guys, don't you have enough of the gaming yet?" but starting towards to mall anyway.

"Hey! I object! I haven't seen hide not hair of a computer game in nine months. Give me some credit." Joey proclaimed, laughing easily.

"Only because your school doesn't have any. I beat there's some perfectly good games that are almost as good as Kaiba' virtual reality." Tristan put in.

"Between Kaiba and Kari I bet there's going to be a revolution in their games soon enough." Yami said.

* * *

The blade of light had been creeping across the room since dawn, the heavy curtains, perfect for keeping out sunlight normally, were open just wide enough that when the slither of light hit Kari it shone in both eyes.

"Gah!" She screamed, and pulled the heavy duvet over her head.

Wait… sunlight?

Where was she? No room mates, no curtains around her bed, not Hogwarts. No one banging on the door, not her parent's house.

Home.

The joy at that idea surged through her, enough to wake her up.

No Yugi, Yami or Joey.

The misery at that thought made her want to crawl back under the covers.

Work. Your real job, where you're valued and your team expects you to stand between them and Kaiba.

They'll be expecting you…

Duty dragged her out of bed, duty made her eat breakfast; duty saw her on her way to Kaiba Corp.

Them she saw her team, friendly faces, working hard.

"Miss Ironhide… there's a problem…"

She smiled.

This was why she put up with everything Kaiba threw at her, she loved her job.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this Hermione?" Her mother asked, and Hermione nodded.

"It is ten weeks until I go back to school, ten weeks before I can practice magic again, unless I do this. It's only for two weeks and only two hours a day, they won't let me do anymore than that, but while I'm working I'm allowed to do some magic, and I'll get paid."

"But an internship… how were you planning on getting there everyday?"

"They provide a portkey. It'll transport me between here and there in moments."

Her parents shared a glance, a mixture of pride and lost.

"It's only an interview; I might not even get a place." Hermione took a breath, and wished… "Please can I go?"

"Well… it is only an interview and it is best to get some practice in before you start looking for a real job; that school of yours…" Her father shook his head gently, "Their curriculum leaves too much out when it comes to preparing you for the real world."

"Thank you!" Hermione jumped out her seat and hugged her father, then mother, then running out the room.

She had to tell Harry… and Ron, and Kari…

"Well at least she won't spend all her time reading."

* * *

It was a dream, one of those marvellous dreams that you never wanted to wake up from, but it was real, from the gentle summer breeze that was enough to keep him from being too hot to the stone that had gotten into his left shoe and was making a nuisance of it self.

He ran from place to place, leaving his brother and the others far behind. Seto just laughed; a joyful sound that Mokuba hadn't heard in too long a time.

He bounced back to Seto, "Everything is prefect big brother." He declared. Just wait until he could tell Ginny.

"Not yet, but it will be. We open to duellists tomorrow, and next week we host the tournament, ready to be put on a show again?"

Mokuba grinned, he might be but his brother never was, "I am when you are." And the younger boy bounced off to see more of the park.

Seto couldn't help smiling at his brother's obvious excitement, if only he knew how much paperwork there was still to do before the theme park could be completed, how much building work was still going on. Kaibaland would never be completed; Seto had so many plans in productions at the moment that the park wouldn't be prefect for years.

* * *

Yugi had to smile, watching Tea dance was like watching Yami duel, or Kari at her laptop, or Harry flying. She was completely in her element, nothing else mattered.

Tea had gotten them in to watch her practice, it seemed to be utter chaos, but everyone was having so much fun.

Joey and Tristan wasn't paying that much attention, they were arguing about something and Yugi just let the familiar words and tone wash over him, even if it was a bit disconcerting to hear Joey and Tristan slip easily between English and Japanese. A few years ago that wouldn't have been possible; neither had been very interested in learning English. Yami watched the strangers that were part of Tea's world, the dancers, the conductors, the musicians, but Yugi just watched Tea.

Yugi had watched Tea practice years before, she had been good then, now she was music in motion. He wondered what her teachers said.

Yami wondered what her peers said, clear jealously coloured several of the faces that watched Tea, but strangely not those of the other dancers, in those he saw admiration and envy. She wasn't the best, not yet, but she was getting there.

"Right boys, it's time to leave. Theatre's closed until we open tonight." The woman held a clipboard, and had a firm no-nonsense look about her.

"What? But…" Joey began.

"It's okay Joey, they always do this, and we'll be back for the show." Tristan said, pulling Joey away from the woman and heading towards the door.

"You too kid." She added when Yugi didn't move. He sighed and followed his friends out the door.

* * *

Ron was sitting in his favourite tree. No one else had managed to climb this old rowan for as long as he knew that trees were for climbing.

Ginny couldn't reach the lowest branch, the twins weren't inclined to climb trees unless they were sturdy looking things with plenty of wildlife, and Percy just didn't climb. He couldn't say for sure that Bill and Charlie hadn't climbed this tree, but they were unlikely at this point in time.

It was his favourite because once he was settled in, no one could find him, he just wasn't visible from the ground and only visible from the air if you were looking in the right direction, and besides they weren't allowed to fly their brooms this far away from the house.

So he was alone. Again.

It wasn't that he disliked his family. No, that wasn't it at all. His friends would have thought him mad. Most of them at least. Well maybe only Harry, Harry didn't know what a pain it could be having everyone in the house wanting to know everything about you, from your grades to possible girlfriends.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Harry's relatives didn't care. Yugi's grandfather did, but didn't pry. Hermione was feeding her parents some well constructed lies made out of the truth if he knew her. Joey's parents didn't care, but his sister did but again she didn't pry.

They care. At least your parents care, at least they show it, at least they are alive, and here, at least you know if you get into any real trouble they will help you out.

Ron pulled out the strange cube his father had found. It was a muggle toy, but a puzzle. There were so few puzzles in the magical world. It was called a Row bits or something, and Ron wondered at the name even as he slid the pieces around and around. He wasn't trying to solve it; he had done that years ago until solving it was no longer a challenge, but his hands needed something to do.

He needed something to keep his mind away from thoughts of his friends.

* * *

Yami was on his guard while they waited in the foray, soon they would take their seats, but until then they waited.

It wasn't long before a familiar voice made it self known. The tone was warm and friendly, but it always was, even when he had been planning to sacrifice their souls to the shadow realm Pegasus had had the most welcoming voice of anyone he knew.

Yami prayed that he wouldn't notice them, but the chances were slim.

"Yugi-boy!" The voice shouted out across the room, and Yami watched his friends' reactions. Yugi froze for a moment before forcing a smile. Joey wasn't as quick, but while he didn't look exactly happy to see Pegasus, at least he didn't look hostile. Tristan had closed down for a moment, but he too was smiling now, but it wasn't a nice smile, it was a smile that said, 'step one foot out of line and I'll have you dead to rights.'

"I see you brought your friends." Pegasus said, "It's good to meet you Yami, in the flesh, so to speak." A warm firm handshake met the warm voice and warm smile. A memory stirred and he again made the connection between Lockhart and Pegasus, they had the same manner, and a similar danger lurked beneath the surface. "Mr Wheeler, Mr Taylor." Pegasus nodded to them.

"Pegasus." It may have surprised anyone listening closely that a name could be said in prefect sync yet in four completely different ways.

* * *

Ombre had woken with the rising sun; she nearly always did, unlike Kari who seemed to think that if you wanted to see the dawn you should stay up all night.

There had been no food in the apartment, but they had been gone for months, the only reason they still had an apartment was because the whole building was owned by Kaiba Corp and priority when to Kaiba Corp employees. Their flat had been used while they were gone, mostly for employees staying in Domino for a few days or weeks for training, meetings or even conferences.

It was clean, tidy and almost completely lifeless.

So Ombre went shopping.

Two hours later she returned with two bags and no longer hungry, having stopped at a small café for breakfast.

Kari was gone; the lack of her laptop on the table it had been dropped on last night signalled that she had probably gone to work. Ombre checked Kari's bedroom anyway.

Ombre glared at the empty unmade bed. Her trunk was still unpacked, bags were scattered around the room, and Kari's clothes from last night were still in the same place she had dropped them from what Ombre could tell.

While in the second bedroom, Ombre's room, the duvet was folded back, the trunk and bags were neatly piled and partly unpacked and her clothes from last night were already in the laundry basket. She wondered if Yugi and Yami ever fought over keeping their rooms tidy.

A cup of tea later and Ombre was no longer glaring, and had started on her unpacking. She still had no idea how in just three years she had managed to pick up so much stuff. The books she could understand, she could still remember a love of knowledge from before, but the clothes? Princess she may have been, but did she really need so many clothes? Uniforms yes, and she needed both Wizarding and muggle wear, and both differed between England and Japan, so why had she brought home her English clothes? Couldn't she have left them in storage or something?

Then there was the junk, only it wasn't really junk because most of it had some sentimental value, but today Ombre didn't feel like being sentimental.

She had forgotten how lonely she would be.

Her friends were all far away, across the sea. So far away that a letter would take days (months or years when she had lived), and might never reach them (true in both times).

She had followed Kari, she had to protect her younger other self, there was a reason… she didn't understand why, but she had to.

She pulled out her deck and ran through the cards, all trusted friends, but they didn't make her feel any less lonely.

She looked at her clock… it was 5am over in England… and midnight over in New York.

She growled at it, grabbed her bag and marched out the room, out the flat, out the building and halfway down the road before she decided where she would go; Kame game shop.

* * *

Yugi waited until he was alone to read the note Pegasus had slipped him, after saying that they should talk again. That had been three days ago so Yugi hoped Pegasus hadn't expected him to read the note straight away.

He still smiled when remembering that first night, although the following two nights had been less stressful, Pegasus hadn't appeared again. Apart from Pegasus and the continuous discussions as to what exactly the old man wanted… Joey's words not his, the night had been prefect, Tea hadn't had a big part, or even a small one, Tristan said it was more like a fraction of a part, but Tea had been so happy it had been hard not to join in her excitement and good cheer, so Yugi had not even tried.

_Dear Yugi boy_

_There's a serious matter I must discuss with you and your friends. Let's just say the world can't seem to keep itself out of trouble these days. I'll have someone pick you up a week after the tournament, the players in question have waited long enough I doubt they'll rush now._

There was the same image of a Pegasus at the bottom of the letter, as when Yugi had finished reading it started to attack the words, scattering them about the page and causing the ink to run until nothing was left except pink smudges.

Yugi groaned, not again. Tell Yami now or later? Surely it could wait until after… no knowing their luck someone would come after them during the tournament, they had done so far. He would tell Yami in the morning.

* * *

Ryou had settled into his room quietly, without fuss. But it wasn't until a few days later that he realised the significance of the room. It had a lock on his side of the door, and not a simple lock that Bakura could have picked in moments, a magical lock.

The lock that refused to open for anyone but the one who had locked it in the first place. A lock that would only open for that person if they wanted it to open. A lock that wouldn't open if he had locked it and the Ring tried to make him unlock it.

Ryou could tell Draco wanted to laugh as he explained this through the door, and that Bakura was probably considering lashing out at the door for causing so much trouble.

But even as Ryou tried again he knew he truthfully didn't want the lock to open, and hadn't since he had found the Ring in control when he woke up.

It was the first time since arriving that Ryou was exactly where he wanted to be.

It was the first time Ryou could remember that he had been trapped and perfectly content, even happy at the fact he was trapped.

The only problem being that Bakura and the Ring would be waiting for whenever he decided to leave.

It still made him feel happier knowing that neither Bakura nor the Ring could control everything, even if Bakura did move him into another room.

He sighed and unlocked the door.

Happiness was fleeting. Tea thought as she once again tried to process what Yugi had just told them.

Two weeks ago she had been so excited, so happy. Her first real performance on a real live stage with a real audience. Even then there had been the niggling worries that always plagued her; partly made worse by that fact Pegasus had been visiting her practices. She didn't know why.

Well she knew what the teachers said, what the other dancers said, and what everyone else on campus said. He sponsored the art section of her college, starting just after he graduated with just the art students, then eventually the actors and dancers.

She hadn't known when she applied, hadn't known when she got a scholarship, hadn't known until he started appearing at her practices.

Hadn't known until now that the reason her friends had visited her in America was because Pegasus had sent them the tickets.

Now she questioned everything as she tore her napkin in pieces.

They were in Yami's room, with pizza, which seemed strange except it was just as it had been in Domino, discussing the bad things while at Yugi's.

Was she even a good dancer? Had she just gotten the place because Pegasus wanted a reason for Yugi to visit America?

She had been so happy her friends would see her success, cheering her on like they always did, like she always did for them. Now it tasted like dust in her mouth. Her friends were in danger again, and once again there was nothing she could do except hope that they wouldn't get themselves killed this time.

"It doesn't change anything." Joey said finally, the first to speak after Yugi's revelation. "Whither we duel or not. The big bad always come after us," always after you, Yugi, "So I don't think we should change our plans based on Pegasus's note."

Tristan nodded, "Yeah, we haven't let you down yet Yuge, we're not leaving you to face this alone." Don't ever think about trying to do this by yourself Yugi.

Her friends; the idiots. "It'll be okay Yugi, Pegasus only wants to talk, it's not like he knows there's anything bad going to happen, wouldn't he had said something otherwise?" Come on Yugi, cheer up, it's not the end of the world, not yet, not ever while you're around.

* * *

Harry woke up and almost smiled. One week down only nine to go. A faint knocking at his window made him turn; A small owl that looked familiar was doing it's best to fly through the gap he had left for Hedwig and completely failing. He grabbed it out the air and pulled it inside.

"Hello, don't I know you?" He asked the small fellow, who chirped and stuck out his leg where a piece of parchment was tied. Harry untied it and set the tiny owl next to the water in Hedwig cage, and Harry glanced at the letter.

Ron! He smiled fully now, but then shoved the letter into his hidey hole. He would leave it until later, when he had finished breakfast.

He slid down the stairs quietly, avoiding the creaky steps. The post chose that moment to come through the letter box. Harry froze halfway up the stairs.

Silence reigned in the house, all he could hear were various snoring and the postman's foot steps walking away.

There was too much post.

The post was normally all plain and uniform, with the brightly coloured junk mail dancing amongst it.

There was a post card, he could see a postcard. No one who the Dursleys knew well enough was on holiday at the moment. He would know, after listening to Petunia gossip about everyone within a half mile of here. Holidays were interesting enough that he actually paid attention to them. He could then put his imagination to good use and pretend he was there instead of here.

He took the last few steps down and picked up the letters.

He flipped the postcard over and glanced at the signature.

Joey.

He smiled and flipped through the rest of the mail.

Mine, theirs, mine, mine, theirs, mine, theirs, mine.

His smile was now a grin, and he tucked his letters in his back pocket. Seven letters in one day! Well one was a postcard, but then Joey wasn't much of a letter writer.

The rest of the day didn't seem so bad, what with seven letters to look forward to reading later.

* * *

So ended the first week of the summer holidays, between possible danger, impossible odds, probable boredom and definite loneliness it wasn't just Harry that was hoping the holidays were over already.

* * *

AN Another Summer story will be coming soon from Joey Taylor, about the summer before this one. Hope you enjoyed. Robin


	2. Chapter 2

Week 2

Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was doing his best not to grin like a Cheshire cat. Okay so it wasn't as good as being back in Hogwarts, but after an impatient day of waiting Harry finally had time to actually read his letters, which he was doing by torchlight while hiding under his duvet.

_Hi Harry, New York is fun, Tea was great on stage, Pegasus was weird, and the gang says hi. I'll let you know who wins the tournament. Joey_

It was his first ever postcard, and had a photo of the Statue of Liberty on it.

He opened the other letters quickly as he could; checking the names as he did so. Ron, by owl post, Ombre by air mail, Yugi, again by air mail, Hermione, Mokuba by MMM, Ginny…? Also by MMM.

What was MMM? And how did Ginny Weasley of all people manage to get mail sent to him the muggle way? Most of her family seemed hopelessly lost when it came to muggle ways.

He hesitated over which to read first, but curiosity won out, what would Ginny say to him? It wasn't like they had talked much.

_Dear Harry, I know we don't really talk but you sounded like you would welcome a letter from anyone, so I'm writing and hoping you'll reply. I don't really know what you're interested in besides Quidditch, but everyone's very excited about the world cup this year…_

He read on as Ginny went into details about the teams, and the qualifying matches for a couple of pages. She hadn't seen the matches; apparently the Wizarding world didn't have the equivalent of a television, instead having listened to the commentary over the wireless.

Harry stared at the letter for a while after putting it down. He still didn't know why Ginny had written to him, unless it was because of her crush, but the letter didn't sound like what he imagined a lovesick teenager would sound like. Instead she sounded like a strange cross between all his female friends with a bit of Ron's passion for Quidditch thrown in.

Leaving Ginny's letter for a moment he picked up Hermione's, wondering if her letter would be the normal discussion on what books she had read, how much homework she had gotten done, and where she and her parents were going on holiday.

He picked up the letter and three stamp books fell out.

_Dear Harry, You'll never guess what! I have an interview with a summer internship program, its tomorrow_ (he checked the date on the letter and saw the interview must have been yesterday)_ so hopefully I'll hear from them by next week._

Down the bottom there was an explanation for the stamps, she figured he wouldn't know what was needed for whom so on each book there was a note for where the stamp would go. England had very plain stamps, just red and white with the queen's head on them. America's were bigger and seemed to have pictures of Big Ben, while Japan's were of the Thames.

He scanned the letter again but she provided no more details other than it being an amazing opportunity. He would have thought she had had enough work to last her a life time after the year she had been through, but not Hermione. She was already a good way into her summer assignments, and her reading list. He read the letter more carefully his third time through, and caught a vibe he wasn't expecting. She was lonely? No, that couldn't be right. He was the lonely one; he was probably just reading into her letter too much.

He wondered which letter to read next, and decided since he had read the most confusing two first he might as read the next one too. Why weren't girls simple?

He picked up Ombre's letter and this time he knew he wasn't imagining it, Ombre was desperately lonely.

_Dear Harry, _

_Japan is weird without the gang around. Kari's off working, I think she's trying to make up the past nine months in just a few weeks. The Kaiba brothers have been busy, they opening their new theme park tomorrow, I think I'll go. Yugi's grandpa has been ever so nice; I've been helping out in his shop since the student who was working there has gone home for the summer._

_Missing everyone,_

_Ombre_

It wasn't a long letter, and postal was expensive overseas. It couldn't have been any nicer for Ombre to be stuck all on her own than it was for him, it might have actually been worse if you considered the fact Ombre would have expected Kari to be around at least some of the time. He was used to being alone, not as much as he used to, but still being alone when before you had always been surrounded by people you knew?

He would write back to Ombre first… after reading the other's letters.

* * *

Yugi felt confused. Not about the duelling, he was completely in his element in a duel… but through the whole tournament he had felt like he was missing something, like somehow everyone knew something about him that he didn't.

Finally he asked Tea, thinking she of all their friends would know. He bribed her with ice cream while Yami, equally curious, challenged Joey and Tristan at an arcade game.

"So what's the big secret?" Yugi asked at last, the silence between them no longer felt natural, instead of the silence of friends it had become the silence of 'I can't remember how to talk to you.'

"Secret?" Tea asked, "Which one?" As casually as possible, but Yugi didn't buy it, he had known her for far too long.

"The one everyone but me and Yami seem to be in on, every one I've duelled has been hinting at something… but I don't have a clue what!" The last bit came out stressed, and Yugi took a breath, he hadn't realised it was getting to him so badly.

"Well… it's about how Yami just showed up two years ago after you had been missing for ten months, no one knew what to think, what with you claiming he was your brother, but no one had ever heard of Yami Muto, and then he just beats you like that," She snapped her fingers, "Playing with your deck, and well…"

"And we never explained it… so they came up their own story?"

"No, actually Pegasus did. He said as soon as you graduated high school you went searching for your missing parents, but instead of finding them, you found Yami. Only now everyone knows your parents are missing."

"Which explains the impostors that turned up last year, but what exactly did Pegasus say?"

"That before your parents went missing they were going to take both you and Yami to Egypt with them, but you got sick and couldn't go on the plane, so they left you with your Grandpa, expecting you and your Grandpa to follow as soon as you were better, but when you two got to Egypt your parents were missing and no one knew what had happened to Yami. Your Grandpa couldn't afford to stay in Egypt for long so he never managed a proper search for Yami or your parents otherwise he would have found Yami after while. He also said you probably gave your deck to Yami as it was the family deck, and you would have wanted to make him feel like family after so long apart." The rush of words slowed, and Tea became silent again while Yugi processed.

"Pegasus?"

"Yes, Pegasus."

"Okay, I don't get why this guy is being so helpful to me all of a sudden."

"Maybe he's trying to make up for past sins?"

* * *

Hermione had been waiting for nine minutes and twenty three seconds when her name was called. She resisted the urge to straighten her skirt when she stood up. Her parents had insisted she get a new dress suit for the interview, but instead of the image she wanted, she looked like a child dressing up in her mother's clothes.

Her interviewer on the other hand… Mrs Redclath was dressed in a dove grey suit, the only colour a pale pink blouse that looked far more professional than the students she was interviewing. Her blondish hair was curled and held in place with either a charm or a lot of hair spray. Hermione had to remind herself that if Kari could get through an interview with Kaiba then surely she could handle a practice interview.

It wasn't like she expected to get the place. She had only completed her third year; the other students all seemed much older than her.

"So Miss Granger, I see from your record that your schoolwork is exemplary. Do you take part in any extra curriculum activities?"

"If truth be told Mrs Redclath, normally I just cheer on my friends from the sidelines."

"Your friends are sportier than you?"

Hermione smiled, "Not really ma'am, Ron is in the chess club, Harry is the sportiest since he plays Quidditch, but I think he just likes to fly, and my other friends are into Duel Monsters so organised a mini-tournament."

"Is that why you applied for a job with us Miss Granger? Because from your file I can't see any reason why you would want to join us."

"To be honest I'm not good at games, but I've watched my friends play Duel Monsters for three years, I just wondered what was behind the game. I'm good at organising, so I know I can do this job, but if you're looking for someone who understands games… that isn't me."

Mrs Redclath tapped her biro against her clipboard for a moment, then asked, "So what do you know about Industrial Illusions?"

"Well…" Hermione began.

* * *

A series of shots rang out, and suddenly Yami was the last one left standing while Tristan's character faded in a reddish glow. Joey growled, his character had been the first out, about twenty minutes into the game, how Yami had avoided being shot he would never know, Tristan had last another five minutes after Joey had gone down, but now it was Yami against the game, and while Yami still held the title of King of Games, he had yet to defeat this one by himself.

So far the only time he had won was when Yugi had played beside him, but that didn't dissuade the Pharaoh from trying again on his own.

Then the screen went red.

"Not again." He groaned. He had been caught in the same place three times, only when he had a partner, be it Joey, Tristan or Yugi, had he seen past this point. The game was designed for coop play, and unless you had two players the pair of twin snipers always managed to take him and anyone else out.

He had tried different strategies each time, but while he could now take out one of the snipers before they got him, there was no way for a single person to reach the second before being shot down, at least not one he had found yet.

"Bad luck Yami, maybe next time?" Joey said, grabbing him around the shoulders, "Now how about a real game?" He asked, Yami grinned slightly, while Joey would only occasionally manhandle him or Yugi while in school he was being a lot more physical with Tristan around.

"Oh man, what would you call a real game?" Tristan groaned, knowing full well that while his preference was shooting games Joey tended to go for the fighting games.

"My turn to pick anyway." Yami put in, looking with interest at the newest addition to the arcade, and Kaiba Corp virtual reality game. It came with headsets, gloves and strange looking controller that seemed a cross between a sword, a gun and a guitar.

"Alright Yami! Let's prove Kaiba's tech isn't up to snuff!"

They had tried the game once before, for about all of ten minutes before their lives ran out, and then realised they were out of chips, by the time they had returned the game had been taken, and every day since for the past week.

This time they would not go out after just ten minutes.

* * *

"Welcome duellists." Kaiba began, looking out over the crowd. There were over three hundred people here, not all of them duellists, but most. He had thought about making the tournament invitation only, until he realised Yugi and Yami would not be competing, at least not here.

Anyway it would be more profitable for the park in the long run. Brilliant duellists tended to globe trot a lot, going from tournament to tournament, trying to find a good match, or trying to prove they were the best. Most of the duellists here today were local, hoping to prove themselves.

It would be a good way of picking out local talent, and for that talent to gain more confidence, something that had been lacking when he and Yugi, Yami, Joey, Kari and others had been playing. They were some of the best duellists in the world, and when they played a tournament few others had a chance at a top spot, and he never got to see how far the local talent could progress.

He continued his speech, and wondered if he had ever seemed that young. He glanced back at Mokuba and motioned him forward to explain the rules, and realised even Mokuba looked older than most of the crowd.

A flash of gold brown catch his eye, 'Ironhide?' but as he continued watching out the corner of his eye he realised it was Ombre, not Kari. No, Kari was back at Kaiba Corp fixing the latest bug that had come up in the re-imaging of the newest cards. Luckily those cards weren't on the market yet, but it was only eight days until they were, and Industrial Illusions wouldn't set back the issue date, and Kaiba Corp had to have an up-grade of the duel disc ready to download before they did.

There was a loud cheer from the crowd, and Mokuba bowed. Thankfully it was over and he could get back to the real work of running his business before having to reward the winner in five days.

"Well done Mokuba." Kaiba nodded as they left the stage.

"You too, big brother."

* * *

Three letters left and an hour before midnight Harry was still writing letters. Ron had been easy, his letter just spoke of flying and food, but again Harry got the strange vibe his friend was lonely. The letter wasn't long, there was nothing of importance in it… it was strange. Hermione had at least pretended to be keeping busy. Then again Ombre hadn't even tried. Ron's letter had left with Hedwig just a little while ago. He considered sending Ginny's with Ron's… but he wanted time to plan that one.

Mokuba's letter had been strange, much like Ginny's in some ways. While Ginny talked of Quidditch, Mokuba talked of Kaibaland and the upcoming tournaments. They were writing for his sake rather than theirs, and it made him feel… funny. Finally he learnt what MMM meant, Muggle to Magic Mail, or in Mokuba's place magic to muggle to magic to muggle mail. Apparently it was less likely to get lost, how Harry couldn't say since surely changing hands four times meant it was more likely to get lost…didn't it?

He told Ginny he wished he could hear the matches, and he thought that while the German and English teams looked impressive they didn't seem much like team players, at least the Irish pretended to like each other. He told Mokuba that he hoped Seto wasn't pushing him too hard, and asked if he thought any of the Duellists could match their mutual friends. He wondered if he should add a postscript _'check on Ombre.'_ But decided not to, instead adding to Hermione's letter that he thought Ombre might be feeling lonely if Kari was working all the time.

Yugi's letter was by far the easiest to answer. His letter was sent not because of loneliness or a general feeling of pity but because he was so overfilled with joy that he had to share it. He rambled about Tea and Tristan, the game arcade, Tea's academy, her show, the upcoming tournament, Yami's failure to understand fast food, Joey's brashness, Tristan's skilful playing of Joey, Tea's skilful fun making of all four of them, and the multitude of photos they were coming back with.

Joey's reply he just added to Yugi's, then added Yami's as well. Not that Yami had sent him a letter… but it seemed wrong to send something to Yugi and Joey, and to ignore Yami altogether.

By then it was midnight, and Harry fell to sleep satisfied, Hedwig wasn't back yet, but she would be by tomorrow night.

* * *

Tea was a bit surprised to find the letter. Well she knew Yugi had sent a letter, but most of their friends used email or the phone so when a letter arrived addressed to Y. Muto, Y. Muto and J. Wheeler care of T. Gardiner she picked it up rather carefully. It was the last day of the tournament and she didn't recognise the spiky handwriting.

Beneath the letter was a small brown envelope, that seemed rather chunky for its small size, it was addressed to her. She opened it and pulled out the bubbled-wrapped item. Then she gasped.

It was a necklace, and the pendant was four hands held together by a smiley face.

She smiled, remembering the first tournament she had watched, the first final Yugi had won, and the shadow game against Pegasus. Their friendship had held together throughout the years and the dangers and the infrequent letters.

Today both Yugi and Joey were in the semi-finals, and in the afternoon there would be the finals and finally Yami would get to duel.

She knew one of the competitors, Rebecca Hawkins, duelling against Joey. Neither had duelled before and had vastly different strategies, but while most duellists would underestimate Rebecca due to her young age and appearance, that wasn't going to be a mistake Joey made, at least not this time. It was a flip up who would win, although Tea would support Joey all the way.

The boy going against Yugi, a Stuart Hemlock, duelled a lot like Weevil, using his plant like monsters to poison and weaken his opponent, but unlike Weevil, Hemlock played an honourable game and was rather closed mouthed. He had finished third at the last tournament he played, being knocked out the semi-finals by Rebecca last year.

She met the boys at the tournament, having taken the bus down. The crowd was massive after everyone had heard Yugi Muto was playing in the semi-finals.

"Tea!" She heard Yugi shout when she got off her bus and she dashed through the crowds towards Yugi.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for your match?" She asked. Yugi was standing on his own near the entrance to the park. That was the weird thing about Yugi, no one ever really saw him. Most of these people were here to see his match, but they didn't see him standing by the entrance.

He shrugged, "Joey's off getting breakfast with Yami and Tristan, I didn't feel like eating much."

Tea shook her head, "Didn't you lot get breakfast at your hotel?"

Yugi grinned, "Yeah but you know what Joey's like, and anyway I wanted to make sure we would find you today." Tea almost blushed; yesterday the entire group had gotten split up but they hadn't found her until the end when she finally reached Yugi's match. It had been a silly thing, she had gotten glomped by one of her dancer friends and by the time Tea realised her friends wasn't there anymore she had no idea where they would be, until Yugi's duel, which was pretty well advertised.

"Oh, before I forgot, a letter came for you." Tea dug the envelope out of her bag.

"Excellent! I was starting to think Harry wouldn't reply in time for us to get his letter."

"Hey, we still have five days left in New York you know."

"Yeah… but then I remembered he didn't have any stamps and it's a bit too far for Hedwig to go." Yugi slipped open the letter with practiced ease and started to read.

"Yugi… what about your duel?" Tea asked, wondering if the world had turned upside down when she wasn't looking. Yugi having to be reminded about a duel… she thought that would never happen.

"Oh… right, I've just been worried about Harry, his relatives… well…" Tea heard the unspoken message, it was the reason she so seldom talked of her parents; it brought up too many bad memories for her friends. She was pretty lucky, her parents might protest her dream but at least she could still talk to them.

"I'll take the letter and start writing back, you focus on your duel, okay Yugi?" She said snatching the letter out of his hands. Yugi smiled slightly, easing the worried look.

"Alright Tea, it's time to duel."

* * *

Ombre handed the box to Mr Muto and slowly climbed down from the step ladder. "Thanks my dear, I'm just not up to getting stuff down off the top selves."

Ombre smiled, "It's okay, glad to be useful." It was early enough that the shop had yet to open, but both Ombre and Solomon were early risers so when Solomon had asked if she would come in early to help out with reorganising the shop she had jumped at the chance.

The tournament would continue today, but her duel wasn't until late morning so she had plenty of time on her hands. Part of her thought she should be watching the competition, but since Yugi's grandfather was an ardent supporter of Duel Monsters he had placed a television showing the tournament up in the shop. As was his tradition the shop would only close for him to watch the semi finals and finals of the tournament. Very few fans of the game would be around at those times and so there was little point of keeping the shop open.

"No really Ombre, you've been a big help the past week. I couldn't have handled it on my own. I think I'm getting a bit old for it now."

The words chilled Ombre, she knew how much Yugi depended on his grandfather, how much all the gang depended on him. "Don't say that…" But memories were flooding in, she knew people in these times lived much longer than in her time but still, she remembered too many deaths when the person was just worn out from age and sickness, how old was Muto Solomon?

"Oh don't you worry; I'll be around for a while yet, plenty of life left in this old gambler."

Ombre nodded, and he continued, "I'm just thinking I need to get someone in full time to help with the shop, it's not fair on you kids to be helping out an old man every summer."

"But I enjoy working here, and I know Joey and Yami do too, and I can't imagine Yugi letting go of this place unless you removed him with a crowbar."

Solomon laughed, "You might be right about that, but still you kids are away getting an education, and I need a lot more help than I used to, Duel Monsters just keeps on growing."

* * *

Yugi and Tea arrived in plenty of time for Yugi's match, but Joey, Tristan and Yami were nowhere to be seen.

"Joey's probably got them lost again." Tea sighed, although lost didn't exactly cover it, Joey was just easily distracted and while they had yet to get into any real trouble this tournament, it could be anything from an impromptu duel, an insult from an old enemy, or a hamburger stand.

"They'll be here Tea, don't worry about them." But Yugi's eyes sought out the clock, fourteen minutes before his duel was due to begin.

"So, what should I tell Harry?" Tea asked, seeking to distract him, Yugi always worried, and yet always had complete confidence that they would be okay, the two concepts seemed polar opposites, but it was part of what made Yugi, Yugi.

Yugi shrugged, "Anything and everything. He's in on all the major secrets, and I bet he's bored stiff at his aunt's house."

"You've told him everything?" Tea asked, and Yugi nodded.

"We've lived in the same dormitory for three years now, and we've been friends most of that time. It's practically impossible to keep secrets from him, not that we didn't try, but Harry pays too much attention, and he's…" Yugi shook his head, "I was about to say he's Harry Potter, but that wouldn't mean anything to you."

"So not so much a matter of trust just that he worked everything out." Tea replied, sounding frosty.

"I trust Harry, Yami does too." Yugi added, realising his trust in Harry may not be enough, "He's a really good friend in a bad situation, but he's a good guy Tea."

"Okay Yugi, but I want to meet him someday, alright?"

"Yeap and I think I had better take my place." Yugi replied, looking to the gawky teenager who he would be duelling next who had just come into view.

Tea hugged herself, feeling suddenly cold. "Where are you guys?" She asked, her hand gripping her new necklace. It slowly warmed in her hand, and she turned as she heard some sort of commotion behind her.

Joey's voice was raised in anger, and Tea stepped towards them, to see Yami stalking forward and looking exasperated at Joey. Tristan on the other hand just looked amused.

"What happened? Yugi's duel is about to start."

"Rex Raptor." Yami said shortly, as if that explained everything, and it did, but that didn't stop Tea.

"What were you thinking getting in a duel with that idiot just before Yugi's duel was about to start?"

Tristan shook his head, "No Tea, Rex was acting weird even for him. Joey had to, or Rex would have…" He trailed off.

"He had a gun Tea." Yami said, "But the police have him in custody now."

"Can't we just have one normal tournament?" Tea asked, her eyes turning skyward.

"We did Tea, last year." Joey joked. "Anyway, this tournament has been fairly normal so far, apart from Rex there haven't been any threats on our lives, none on our souls, no shadow games, no being stuck in a virtual reality, no freaky magic. We might be lucky."

"Mr Hemlock to move first, ready Duellists?" The announcer shouted over the murmuring from the crowd causing Yugi's friends to settle and the crowd to go quiet.

"Let's duel!" Both Yugi and Stuart shouted.

The holographic projectors activated and the crowd roared.

Yugi smiled slightly as he drew his first hand. He'd heard of Stuart Hemlock. The Duellist played an Insect Deck, not unlike Weevil, but, unlike Weevil, who had been banned from this tournament for cheating, he was said to play an honourable duel.

"It's about time I got to face a real challenge." Hemlock laughed, though Yugi could tell it was exhilaration, the same as ran though all great Duellists when faced with a challenge, "I play two cards face down and a card in face down defence mode. It's your move, Yugi."

"I've heard of you before and I've been waiting to face you in a duel since I got here." Yugi admitted, "It's nice to finally play a Insect Duellist who doesn't cheat, one card face down, and one card in face down Defence Mode. End turn."

Stuart drew, studied the field for a second, and then nodded, "I sacrifice my Basic Insect…" The face down defence mode card vanished, "For my Rainbow Moth!"

A huge, rainbow winged moth appeared on the field, a square with it's attack and defence appearing for a few seconds before vanishing, telling those who didn't know what the stats for it were, 2100/1300, "And it attacks your face down card!"

The monster appeared and Yami frowned, he'd never seen that card before. A marshmallow looking thing just sat there as the winds from the moth's wings attempted to blast it.

"What?" Stuart yelped as _**his**_ life points dropped by 1000.

"You attacked my Marshmallon." Yugi explained, "It can't be destroyed in battle and if it's attacked, the attacker loses 1000 life points."

"Well played." Hemlock conceded, "I haven't seen that card before. Your turn."

Yugi smiled back and drew, "I play another card face down and summon my Obnoxious Celtic Guard in attack mode, and I end my turn."

"Does this one have an effect too?" Stuart asked.

"He can't be destroyed by anything with over nineteen hundred attack points."

"But the damage is lost just the same, right?" Stuart grinned, "Rainbow Moth, attack!"

"I activate Marshmallon Glasses!" Yugi called, activating them.

A huge pair of glasses appeared on his moth, and the attack veered towards Marshmallon.

"What?" Stuart was beginning to feel like that was becoming his catchphrase for the Duel.

His life points dropped again, taking him down to 2000.

"Marshmallon Glasses means that your Moth can only attack my Marshmallon." Yugi explained.

Stuart rolled his eyes, off course someone like Yugi would have a strategy to work with a monster like Marshmallon. "I end my turn."

"I sacrifice my Guardian to summon my Dark Magician Girl!" Yugi called, "And play Sage's Stone!" A red costumed Dark Magician Girl, 2000/1500, and a dark blue, rather then purple, robed Dark Magician, 2500/2100, appeared on the field, grinning at each other, before nodding to Yugi and glaring at the moth. It was a strategy he'd gotten from Kari, and he'd managed to lay his hands on a new pair of Magicians in a pair of Wizard Duel Monsters Booster Packs he'd gotten in Hogsmead on their last trip there, though he'd had to work very hard to convince Kari that no he didn't want to trade them, and yes, he was certain, and no there was absolutely nothing she had that he wanted enough to trade with her.

"I activate my magic card, Dark Magic Attack, allowing my Dark Magician to destroy all your face down cards."

Stuart growled as they were blown away.

"Dark Magician attacks your moth."

It exploded and Stuart's points dropped to 1600.

"It's your move."

"The rumours I heard weren't wrong, Yugi." Stuart said with a frown of the concentration as he looked at Yugi, then at his hand, "You are an excellent Duellist. I play Monster Reborn to bring back my Moth, and play Nature Power to increase its attack power by 500, more then enough to blast your Dark Magician."

The Marshmallon Glasses were gone; blow away with the monster the first time, so the Moth's attack blew the Dark Magician away.

The Dark Magician Girl looked furious as Yugi's points dropped to 3900.

"And I know the Dark Magician Girl gets an extra 300 points because I sent her Master to the Graveyard," _Master and friend,_ Yugi thought, "But she's still no match for my Moth. I summon Butterfly Swarm (1600/1200) in attack mode and end my turn. Your move."

Yugi drew and looked at the field, smiling slightly.

Stuart recoiled, he'd heard of that look, seen it on TV many times, but it didn't get any less worrying when it was on the face of his opponent.

"I play Equivalent Exchange." Yugi called, "Which allows me to destroy one monster that has the same number of stars as the one I offer." _I'm sorry Mana,_ "I sacrifice my Dark Magician Girl to destroy your Rainbow Moth."

Both the red Dark Magician Girl and the Moth disappeared in a flash of light.

"I play one card face down and end my turn."

Stuart frowned as he drew. If he could get past Marshmallon, he could attack Yugi directly, but no matter how strong his monsters were, that stupid marshmallow couldn't be destroyed.

"I place a card face down on the field and I have to end my turn."

Yugi drew, "I use a Ritual Card called Heart of Light, offering my Marshmallon and this card, Beast of Gilford, to summon forth a new Monster, one not even my brother has seen yet."

Stuart was intrigued and worried.

The ritual finished and a rather large, white bird, with glowing wings appeared.

"Meet the White Phoenix." Yugi said with a grin, "With 3000 attack and 2500 defence points, it's in the same league as the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

Stuart was sure, with a name like White Phoenix, that it had an effect too.

"White Phoenix, burn his swarm!"

The Butterflies vanished in a blaze of white fire, and Stuart's points dropped to 200.

"It's your move."

Stuart read the field quickly, and then drew. His face down card would have boosted his moth, and his only monster in his hand wouldn't last five minutes against Yugi's Phoenix.

Yugi was stunned as Stuart's hand went over his deck. "Stuart?"

"I concede Yugi, I can't beat your Phoenix and you'll beat me on the next turn."

The crowd roared as Yugi was announced the victor, and Yugi jumped. He'd been so caught up in the duel that he'd forgotten the crowd was there.

His Phoenix vanished and Yugi went back over to his friends.

Finals here he came.

* * *

Kari's eyes itched. She had been staring five lines of code for thirty minutes and still couldn't see where the error was. It was here, she knew it was in these five lines, she just couldn't see the error, the missing letter, or extra, or displacement. She leaned back, and pushed her rolling chair away from her desk, sending it spinning gently before she lifted herself out of it with a groan.

"I need a coffee Jack, want anything?" She asked the sole technician remaining. Jack worked the late shift, not that Kaiba could complain, when Kari was there she was there from 6am to 11pm most days, her staff worked in shifts to accommodate their boss. Jack worked the late, Kat worked the early but only 4 hours a day, and the other two techs varied in a complex system that only they seemed to understand but seemed to involved how many errors they solved, how many dates they had in a month, and how many times Kari ordered pizza.

Jack looked up, "A new pair of eyes wouldn't go amiss, but failing that a coffee's good."

Kari smiled, "I doubt I could find another pair of square eyeballs for you sockets, Captain." She saluted and wandered off to find the canteen, or failing that a vending machine.

Then it hit her. "There's not an error within the code, the lines are in the wrong place!" She rushed back into the office, slamming into her desk and dragged the last line of code between the first and second line. "Now play that you evil, evil thing!" She grinned her most menacing grin at her computer.

* * *

"By the way, Harry sent a letter." Tea dropped in the conversation.

It was enough to shut Joey up.

"Really? That's unexpected, how did he know to send it to you?" Yami asked.

"I'm guessing Yugi said in his letter. Yuge wants to send a reply by the end of the day."

"While we're rushing round like headless chickens, dodging fans, avoiding crowds, and duelling?"

"I'm writing, since all I'm doing today is avoiding the crowds." Tea said, winking at Joey.

"Joey, your duel is about to start…" Yugi warned him.

Joey growled, "Okay, but I want a chance to say something."

"Well we can't send it until we know the results of all the duels, wouldn't be fair." Tea said reasonably.

Joey marched away, and Rebecca waved from her platform.

"So who has the letter?" Yami asked.

"Joey's duel is about to start!" Tea exclaimed. Yami and Yugi shared a look.

"But…" Yami tried to think of a reasonable response other than 'its Harry.' "Joey would understand."

"Would Rebecca?"

"Probably." Yugi said, turning to their young friend on the field. "Hey Rebecca!" He shouted, "Harry sent us a letter; want to add your reply to ours after the duel?"

Rebecca grinned, "Oh course I will, I've been trying to get his address off of Mokuba for weeks now."

"See? No prob." Yami said, seizing the letter from Tea's unresisting hands.

Tea glared at him, then shook her head slightly. "You're as bad as Yugi." She declared.

"Miss Hawkins to go first, ready Duellists?"

"Duel!" Joey and Rebecca had already drawn their opening hands and were staring at each other. The crowd's roar made Joey smile slightly, "Hey Rebecca, I hope you realise that I'm not going to go easy on you."

"I know, and I hope you know that I'm going to be the one duelling Yugi next." Rebecca replied as she drew, "I play one card in defence mode and one card face down; it's your turn Joey!"

"I summon Red Eyes Black Chick, in attack mode and play three cards face down, your move Becs." Joey looked confident.

Rebecca wasn't stupid, she knew how Joey played, that was an obvious ploy to get her to walk into a trap, one the other hand, if it wasn't a trap and she didn't attack, Joey would be able to summon Red Eyes Black Dragon in the next turn… if he had it…

"I summon Masked Dragon, in attack mode and flip up my Raging Flame Sprite. Raging Flame Sprite, attack him directly!"

"Huh?" Joey was confused for all of two seconds before the flames that shot from the sprite and hit him.

His life points went down by 100 and the monster got 1000 points stronger.

"Becs, how did that monster…?"

"It can attack your life points directly and gets an extra 1000 attack points every time it does."

"Ah."

"Now, Masked Dragon, attack his Chick!"

"Activate Gambler's Debt!" Joey yelled.

Masked Dragon disappeared from the field.

"What did you…?"

"Gambler's Debt allows me to remove one monster from your side of the field as long as I discard one card from my hand." Joey grinned.

It had been a trap, damn, "I end my turn!" Rebecca growled.

"I sacrifice my Chick, to summon its fully grown version!" Joey called, "Come to me, Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

Joey's most faithful card, the one that he had won from Rex Raptor, the one that had saved him in so many Duels that he'd lost count, arrived on the field with a roar and a beat of his wings. _Tobias._

"Red Eyes! Attack her Sprite!"

Red Eyes blasted Rebecca's sprite, hitting her life points for 1300, lowering them to 2700.

"I play a card face down and end my turn."

"You're not going to win!" Rebecca growled, "I special summon Inferno, in defence mode, by removing the Raging Flame Sprite you sent to the Graveyard from play, and set one monster card face down in defence mode." She glared, "End turn!"

Joey looked at his hand and grinned, "I summon Flame Swordsman!"

Becs didn't look worried.

"And activate Salamandra, increasing his attack by 700!"

Now Rebecca looked worried.

"Red Eyes! Attack her face down card!"

"I discard two cards to activate my Fire Sorcerer's effect, taking 800 life points before she's destroyed!"

Joey winced but didn't worry too much as his points dropped to 3100.

"Flame Swordsman! Attack Inferno!"

"Activate Firewall!" Rebecca yelled.

Her Inferno's defence points increased by 600, causing Flame Swordsman's attack to bounce off.

"Damn, sweet move Becs." Joey said as Inferno's defence points went back down, "I end my turn."

"Thank you." Rebecca grinned, "I play another card in defence mode and end my turn!"

"You feeling alright Rebecca?" Joey asked with concern as he drew, "You're not playing your best." Joey scowled, "I swear if you're letting me win, I'm not going to be happy."

"I'd never let anyone win." Becs growled, "Just make your move."

"I only asked." Joey shrugged, "I play Dragonheart String, which gives Red Eyes an effect called Trample as long as he's the only dragon on the field. I also summon Gearfried the Iron Knight."

"Trample?"

"The difference between your defence and Red Eyes' attack is taken from your life points." Joey explained.

"Oh."

"Red Eyes attacks your face down card!"

"It's another Fire Sorcerer, meaning…"

"Not again!" Joey complained as Rebecca discarded two cards and Joey lost 800 life points.

However hers went down to 1800.

"And Flame Swordsman attacks Inferno."

The fire creature exploded, leaving her defenceless.

"Gearfried! Attack!"

Rebecca's life points fell to zero.

"Well played Joey." Rebecca sighed.

Joey just frowned for a moment, before shrugging, "Better luck next time, Becs."

She chased him back to the group of friends.

* * *

Calm. Peaceful. Centred.

Robyn took a deep breath, and opened her eyes.

It was Ireland against Korea in the Quidditch world cup, and a moment ago she had almost seen the end.

The game was only just starting. There was no way she wanted to see how this would end before it actually ended. That was the only trouble with getting excited over Quidditch, when ever she got too excited her vision would skip to the end, it had ruined more than a few games for her before she learnt to control it.

Excited or scared, both had filled the last few weeks, and as a result her visions had been coming more frequently, now twice a week instead of once every couple of months, but she had yet to decide anything.

There was something wrong, something that was going wrong or had gone wrong… but there was nothing she could do about it, otherwise her visions should have warned her by now and nearly all her visions centred on the World Cup (much to her annoyance) and Hogwarts, so there was nothing she could do until September.

* * *

Lunch had been fun, after Joey's and Rebecca's duel Rebecca had glomped Yugi, then stolen the letter from Yami, laughing as Joey chased her, only stopping when Tristan reminded them that they were meant to be meeting Duke for Lunch.

Joey grumbled but Rebecca got to add to the letter first, hogging it throughout lunch, and then handing it over to Duke when she was done, poking her tongue out at Joey.

Joey muttered under his breath about bratty duellists who were too smart for their own good.

When Duke finished adding to the letter he handed it over to Tristan, and ignoring Joey's glare asked, "Don't you two have a duel to get to?"

Rebecca's grandfather joined them in the stands; the Professor had left in a hurry at the end of her duel, trusting the gang to look out for her.

Rebecca then insisted her grandfather add to the letter, and Tea started to wonder if the young genius would start asking random people in the crowd to add a few words.

No matter what happened today, it was going to be an interesting letter.

"Mr Wheeler to move first, ready Duellists?"

"I'm not stupid enough to go easy on you, Yuge."

"I wouldn't expect you to and I'm not going to go easy on you either." Yugi grinned.

"Duellists?" The announcer asked again.

"Duel!"

"Alright Yuge, the winner gets to play Yami, and I want to beat him this time!" Joey said with a grin. "One card face down and one in defence mode. Your move."

"You have to get through me first!" Yugi grinned back, "I play a card in face down defence mode, and two cards face down. End Turn!"

Joey wasn't stupid; at least one of those cards had to be a trap. "A card face down in defence mode, and another face down."

Yugi laughed, "Playing defensively Joey?" He asked, "That's not like you."

"Just make your move!" Joey growled at him.

Yugi smiled and sacrificed his face down card, "I sacrifice my face down to summon my Lesser Fiend."

A four armed beast appeared on the field, flexing its muscles, it wasn't one Joey would have thought Yugi would use…

"I got this one from Harry, who wanted my Gold Winged Wolf," Yugi grinned, "Lesser Fiend! Attack his face down card!"

Joey's Red Eyes Black Chick exploded.

"It's your turn Joey."

Joey drew and laughed, "Speaking of cards given to us by Harry, I play Dragon Tamer, which gains attack points for each dragon in the graveyard, which I got from Harry for a Phoenix Heart card, and I activate Flute of Summoning Dragon."

Yugi looked confused.

"No, I didn't steal that one off of Kaiba." Joey grinned, "I use it to summon Red Eyes Black Dragon and Luster Dragon Number 2."

Two rather large dragons appeared and Joey grinned, "They both have 2400 attack points, Yuge, and they're both attacking you!"

"Activate Mirror Force!"

Joey swore as all of his monsters exploded and his field was left wide open. He'd expected a trap, but not that one. "I end my turn!"

"Sorry Joey," Yugi didn't look too sorry at all, "I activate Monster Reborn, to bring back your Luster Dragon."

"Go for it Yuge, I walked straight into it."

Yugi paused, it was too easy. "I activate Dust Tornado to blow away your face down card."

_Damn it._

"Now, Lesser Fiend! Luster Dragon! Attack!"

Joey's points dropped to zero and Joey sighed, at least his record was consistent.

"Good try Joey." Yugi managed to say before the cheering started.

* * *

Ombre's eyes scanned the crowd before her duel like she always did. Her friends were absent, and she hadn't told Kari she was entering the tournament so she didn't expect to see anyone she knew, but it was habit now.

Then she spotted a familiar face and grinned. Muto Solomon had come to watch the final, and he was waving at her. She saluted, and could feel her heart lifting, she wasn't entirely alone, and anyway even if her friends weren't here right this moment they were here in spirit, and in card, even Ryou had given her a card, too embarrassed to say why, or too afraid.

It was time to duel.

Ombre grinned at her opening hand, thinking of her friends…

Kari's Magician's Valkeria, Yugi's Kuriboh (why did he have so many of them?), Yami's Skilled Dark Magician, Harry's Winged Kitsune and Hermione's Secrets of the Library all in her hand.

"Ironhide, it's your move!" Her opponent snapped, he'd put a card in defence mode and played one face down.

"Sorry." Ombre apologised and drew, Ron's Compactor, "I summon Skilled Dark Magician and place two cards face down, "Your move."

The teenager drew, he couldn't be more then fifteen, sixteen at most, and Ombre realised that the game was being taken up by younger and younger people, in fact Kari must have been around his age when she'd started and he'd been playing for three years.

Kai sacrificed his face down card for Patrician of Darkness. Ombre rolled her eyes as he attacked her Skilled Dark Magician.

"I activate Compactor, which halves the attack of your monster."

Her Skilled Dark Magician destroyed the attacking monster.

"Your move."

Ombre had to admit, as she drew, that she'd been somewhat disappointed in the skill level of the players she'd faced so far, she supposed that it was because she'd been playing against the King of Games and the regular tournament finalists for so long that she expected all Duellists to have the group's skill level.

"I summon Winged Kitsune, in attack mode and attack you with both."

Between Skilled Dark Magician's 1900 and Winged Kitsune's 1800, the teen lost 3700 life points, reducing him to 300.

Harry and Yami, the leaders of their group, giving her support when she needed it.

"I play my Secrets of the Library, allowing me to draw three new cards." Ombre said. "I end my turn."

Kai wasn't happy, and drew, scowling.

_Sore loser. _Ombre thought, as he summoned a card in defence mode and ended the turn.

"I summon Magician's Valkeria, and use her to destroy your monster."

Kai activated his face down card, Monsterous Shield, bringing back a monster to protect his monster on the field.

Valkeria's attack destroyed the shield, Winged Kitsune's attack destroyed the monster, and Skilled Dark Magician's attack finished the Duel.

Ombre found herself unsatisfied as the announcer shouted about her victory, and the Kaiba Brothers congratulated her. They may have been in her deck, but without her friends around, it just didn't feel like a real victory.

* * *

"This is the match you've all been waiting for," Pegasus introduced the Duel, "The Tournament Winner, Yugi Muto, will play the current King of Games in a Championship Match for the crown!"

Yugi smiled slightly at the roar of crowd approval at that.

If he was honest with himself, he had once preferred duelling in a separate area to where the crowds were, but that wasn't possible here and playing Quidditch had gotten him used to loud crowds.

"And here he is folks, the one and only King of Games, Yami Muto!"

The noise from the crowd would have rivalled Hogwarts at the Quidditch Match and that was saying something, as Yami came out of the stands, where he'd been sat with their friends, and came over to him.

"Ready Yugi?" Yami asked.

"Yeap." Yugi smiled and nodded. "You better not go easy on me, Yami; I'm not going to let you win."

"I wouldn't dream of not duelling you with everything I've got." Yami grinned, "I know better then that."

"You heard it, the King of Game and the tournament winner, ready to duel." Pegasus said, getting a roar from the crowd, "If you will take your places…"

Yugi and Yami grinned at each other and then went to their places.

"Yugi Muto, are you ready?"

Yugi activated his Duel Disk, "Ready."

"Yami Muto, are you ready?"

Yami activated his Duel Disk too, "Ready!"

"Yugi Muto to move first."

Yami and Yugi looked at each other, "Duel!"

Yugi drew his first card and sighed, he never seemed to get a decent hand to start with when he played Yami in Tournaments. "I play one card in defence mode and two cards face down, it's your move Yami!"

Yami grinned, "I summon Skilled Dark Magician, in attack mode and play two cards face down," Yami's eyes flickered to Yugi's face down cards, "And I end my turn."

Yugi grinned, "Playing it cautious, bro?" Yugi asked, drawing, "I sacrifice my face down card for my Dark Magician Girl…" Yami wondered if it was coincidence that the red Dark Magician Girl looked a bit like Kari, with brown hair and brown eyes. "And activate Mage Power, raising her attack to 2500." Yugi watched Yami carefully, "Dark Magician Girl attacks your Skilled Dark Magician!"

"Negate Attack!" Yami called, activating one of his face down cards, "And Magician's Circle allowing both of us to summon a Spellcaster with 2000 attack points or less."

Yami's Dark Magician Girl, the normal version, appeared, while Yugi summoned a Winged Magician, another present from Harry.

"Alright Yami, I guess the turn passes back to you."

* * *

"Impressive aren't they."

Tristan turned, he recognised that voice.

"Pegasus." Joey growled, "What do you want?"

"I came to see Yugi boy duel Joseph, wouldn't anyone with an interest in the games?"

"Joey enough, we don't stop Kaiba from watching Yuge's duels or anyone else." Tristan said, grabbing Joey's arm before he did something more than just growl.

"Since when were you all buddy buddy with Pegasus?" Joey asked, incredulously.

"How about since he's the reason I'm here with my friends instead of stuck in Japan."

"We're only here because he wanted us here." Joey growled again, but no longer as hostile.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's important that I speak to you all, we have less time than I thought."

"When you say all…" Tea began.

"I mean all, not just the Pharaoh."

"Muto has to finish the duel first Pegasus." Duke put in, with far more respect in his tone that any of the others had. Of course Duke had never had to watch as Pegasus messed with Yugi.

"And I'm pleased I can watch this historic event in person."

"Pegasus, we're writing to our friend Harry, would you like to add to the letter?" Rebecca had gone into full cutesy mode, reducing her age by a few years.

The gang was shocked into silence, Tea opening to protest, but was at a complete lost as to what to say. So far Rebecca had asked most of the high ranking duellists she knew, the referee, a few of her fans, and a couple of Yugi's.

"Would I know this friend of yours?" Pegasus asked.

"I doubt you know Harry Potter, his relatives keep him pretty close to home. He would have loved to be here today."

This time it was Pegasus's turn to look surprised, but his mask was on again almost instantly. "Would that be Harry James Potter?" He asked, "The lightening kid?"

"You've heard of him?" Joey said in surprise.

"So that's where they've been hiding you. That makes altogether too much sense, Dumbledore always did…" Pegasus shook himself out of his thoughts. "Yes Rebecca my dear, I think I will add a few comments to your magnanimous effort."

Rebecca beamed, and handed over the letter, now almost three times the size it had been before lunch.

"I know I've said it before, but that girl is crazy." Joey muttered to Tristan and Tea, who could nothing but nod. They would have to tell Yugi and Yami later.

* * *

Yami read the field, and then his hand.

Yami had his Sorcerer of Dark Magic on the field, at 3200 while Yugi only had his Dark Magician Girl left, at 2600 attack points.

Both of them were down to 100 life points.

Yami twigged how he was going to end this as he looked more carefully, "I play Monster Reborn to bring back the Dark Magician, Yugi's Dark Magician Girl went down to 2300, "And I activate Graverobber to steal your Dark Magic Attack magic card!"

Yugi's eyes widened as his face down cards were blown away.

"Sorcerer of Dark Magic, attack the Dark Magician Girl!"

Yugi's life points dropped to zero and the crowd's roar actually outmatched Hogwarts during Quidditch.

"Yami Muto wins!" The announcer yelled.

* * *

The closing spiel over with, Yugi and Yami were joined by their friends, on the arena floor.

"Well done my boy." Pegasus shook Yami's hand, "But I notice you did not use the God cards in your duel."

"I thought it best to keep them off the field considering what they are."

"You did not go all out against your… brother?" The hesitation was minute, but Yami's eyes narrowed.

"I do not put my twin in any more danger than necessary Pegasus." Yami growled.

"Ah yes, sensible of you I'm sure. May I invite you and your friends to dinner tomorrow night, a celebration if you will?"

Yami nodded, "We'll come."

"All of you?"

Yami nodded again, and wondered what exactly he and his friends were getting into.

"Then here's the invites, all the information in contained within. I'll see you tomorrow night." Pegasus pulled several pinkish envelopes out of seemingly thin air and handed them to Yami.

"Have a… magical evening." Pegasus said as he left.

* * *

Ryou was once again questioning his sanity. It had been an open question for about seven years now, or maybe longer.

Only over time the question had changed. He didn't worry about the gaps in his memory anymore. He knew, or had a good guess, what was going on there and he didn't want details, only he did, he just didn't think he could bear to know them.

He wondered if getting involved with Ombre was a mistake. Except she cleared his head, she kept him grounded and he didn't have that many close friends that he was willing to sacrifice even one.

He kept flip-flopping between decisions, but it all came down to one thing, he couldn't afford to lose her because of the Ring. So he kept his distance, and kept her friendship, and tried not to go too far in either direction.

He had been going through his deck when it happened. He had gained a card, and he didn't know how, didn't remember how, and the more he looked the more he realised that there was a card missing.

He looked at the new addition to his deck and didn't have a clue what to do about it. It was Ombre's card, or one of her cards. The one missing was also hers, but not. It was the one he had always imagined he would give her if he ever trusted himself that far. It had been a pipe dream, he knew that now, the Ring would never let him go, but the card was gone.

Had he given that card to Ombre? Would he have? And if he had… why couldn't he remember?

* * *

"I don't think I'm all that surprised to find out that Pegasus is magical." Yugi said after Joey, Tea and Tristan told them what Pegasus had said while he and Yami were duelling.

"Yuge does have a point, most of the witches and wizards we've met are exceedingly weird, and Pegasus was strange even by Duellist's standards." Joey said, nodding.

"Is he strange by magical standards?" Tristan asked, still trying to get his head around Pegasus being a wizard.

Yugi, Yami and Joey share a look, and chorused, "Not really."

"Then how strange…" Tea asked.

Joey answered, "You should see Diagon Alley sometime. Most wizards have no sense of colour coordination, there's the strange hats;"

"Mrs Longbottom's vulture."

"Quirell's turban."

"The assortment of pets,"

"Rats, cats, toads, snakes, owls…"

"…salamanders, pufferskins, leeches, spiders…"

"And none of these pets ever get left at home, they might be lonely," Joey rolled his eyes, "How half of them avoid getting eaten I'll never know."

"And that doesn't count the normal pets…"

"Wait, I thought a cat was a normal pet…" Tea exclaimed, her eyes losing a bit of their glazed look.

"Have you met my cats?" Yami asked instead, "Because unless you didn't see, one of mine has wings."

"No, I don't think I've seen a cat with wings, I think I might have noticed." Tea glares at him.

Yami looked up, his eyes scanning the roof tops.

"Joey, anyone around?" He asks, and Joey checks.

"Not at the moment."

He pulls a rubber mouse out of his pocket, holding it by its tail. "Ready Tea?"

"Yami, I doubt your cat is going to hear that from wherever it is at the moment."

"Look up." He said; his eyes fixed on the roof's edge, right where the drain pipe was attached.

He squeaked the toy, and a head appeared over the edge of the roof. He squeezed the toy again, and the cat looked straight at them, its golden eyes catching the light. The toy squeaked a third time and Yami chucked it up in the air.

Their was the sound of scrambling and then the cat jumped off the building, it's wings flapping heavily, before it dived straight for them.

It caught the toy before it even hit the ground, purring madly and squeaking the toy like it was going out of style.

"That cat has wings." Tea said unnecessary.

"Kana also follows me everywhere and attacks me whenever she thinks I'm not getting enough rest."

"Attacks you?"

"She managed to knock Yami out." Yugi said, "And then wouldn't let him up until he agreed to her demands."

"She's either evil or too used to getting her way, and considering Bakura's reaction we're pretty sure she's not evil." Joey said.

"What was Bakura's reaction?"

"Somewhere between amused, annoyed and utterly furious."

"Explain please."

"Amused when she knocked Yami out, annoyed that she stopped obeying his commands, and utterly furious that she would dare threaten him."

The young pilot cat stopped playing with her toy, and decided to try her favourite game of knock over the silly humans.

"Kana, no." Yami said when she began wrapping herself around Tea's legs; the kitten merely meowed and continued.

"She's not doing any harm." Tea said, crouching down to smooth the feathered kitten.

"Tea…" Yami began, but before he could finish Tea went 'eeek' and fell over, and the demon kitten jumped on top of her and began purring.

Yugi giggled, Tea looked just as put out as Yami had a few months ago.

"I can't move." Tea ground out through clenched teeth.

"Kana, get off Tea, be a good kitten and get off my friend?" Yami tried, cooing to the kitten.

The kitten raised it wings slightly and tilted its head as it considered.

_'Fish?'_

"Alright, I'll get you fish in the morning if you get off Tea now."

_'Promise?'_

"Only if you promise to stop attacking my friends."

_'Promise!'_ The kitten meowed, and jumped off of Tea.

* * *

Mokuba sighed. He wouldn't admit it to his brother but without Joey and Yugi around Domino seemed ever so dull. Kari was no help, she was laired up in her office working practically all hours, and she had been known to growl at anyone who interrupted.

He had considered taking part in the Duel Monster tournament, but it wasn't really his game, it was Seto's. His game was capsule monsters, but that tournament wasn't until late august, by which time he would be back in England. Seto had asked him to take a more active part in organising the competition, and he had.

But now the tournament was over, and he was looking at a long empty summer practically alone. He hadn't had that many friends before going to school in England, and while his number of friends had multiplied they wasn't here, all his friends were in England or America, except for Seto, Kari and Ombre.

Seto and Kari were both workaholics, and it was even worse every time they came back for the summer, the work just piled up, and Mokuba knew Seto was seriously considering ditching the whole magical education thing, and to be honest Mokuba didn't understand why Seto hadn't yet. Except it was knowledge, and a market Kaiba Corp hadn't even had access to just a few years ago.

He put down the homework and glanced out the window. It was a horrible stormy day, the rain dancing against the library's windows.

Dark and stormy, Mokuba shivered, it reminded him too much of the Quidditch match that the Dementors had invaded, down to the dark figure gliding across his lawn.

A dark figure gliding? Not running? The rain looked freezing cold, and the wind torn his clothes away, so they steamed out behind the figure. Mokuba stepped back from the window, fear driving him.

Wand? Check. Seto? Upstairs. Anyone else? No one was meant to be here.

Run.

"Seto!" He yelled up the stairs as he ran.

* * *

Yami resisted the urge to check his watch again, they were early, he knew they were early; he didn't need to check his watch because the time wouldn't have changed.

It hadn't helped that for some reason Pegasus had wanted Rebecca and Duke along, and neither he nor Yugi knew why. It was bad enough that Tea, Joey and Tristan were always ending up in danger because of him, them… Yami let the thought trail off, not sure where to end it.

Normally people went after him, but more often lately Yugi, but it wasn't unheard of for someone to go after their friends. Just look at Marik for example.

So now the seven of them were waiting for a car of some sort to turn up.

Pegasus had better have a good explanation.

Finally a black limo stopped, and a familiar face got out. "Please could you all get in." Croquet, Pegasus's assistant, phased it as a request, but like most of utterances it sounded more like a demand.

With a last look at each other the group of friends piled into the vehicle, that was surprisingly large on the inside.

Croquet followed them in, sitting opposite the seven.

"Drive." He demanded, and the limo pulled away.

"Well?" Joey demanded after the silence began to get oppressive.

Croquet fidgeted with his glasses, a habit Yami had seen once before.

"Something's gone wrong, hasn't it?"

"The enemy that Mr Pegasus was preparing for attacked him last night."

"Who was it?"

"Dementors."

Yugi took a sharp breath, Rebecca flinched, Joey paled, and Yami's eyes narrowed.

"What's a Dementor?" Duke asked, looking as confused as Tea and Tristan.

"They drain happiness and eat souls." Yami said, and a fearful silence fell in the car.

"But how did they get here? I thought Hermione said there aren't any Dementors outside the British Isles." Yugi asked; his mind racing.

"There aren't." Rebecca confirmed, "It would cause a war if the British Ministry sent them here."

"Did the Ministry send them? Maybe they want a war." Tristan asked.

"No. They disappeared from Azkaban just over a week ago. The Ministry is keeping it quiet." Croquet told them

"I suppose you can't have rouge Dementors floating about when they are hosting the Quidditch World Cup." Yami said sarcastically.

Joey looked thoughtful, "Isn't that around the time they came after the train?"

Yami and Yugi's eyes widened and they looked at each other; it was around the same time, almost exactly the same time.

"No one has been informed except those at the highest levels, and the British Minister of Magic has declared that the Dementors would not leave the country therefore there is no need to inform any Foreign Powers."

"But Pegasus said that the enemy had been preparing for a long time, he can't have meant the Dementors if they only escaped last week." Yugi put in.

"Mr Pegasus suspects that the Dementors are merely a distraction, a new found ally. You know the old saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend? While my employer hoped it would not be true, there is evidence that the Dementors must have had help getting here, otherwise, where is the trail of hopelessness they would have left behind?"

"But what do we have to do with this?" Duke asked, he question that the others had even failed to think of, much less ask.

"Because Mr Devlin, the Dementors left a message in Azkaban. It took a week, as translating from the Dementors' written language is not easy, but the direct translation is 'revenge will be had against the oldest shadow for dividing the host.' The so-called experts thought that meant an old wrong done against them, but Mr Pegasus had a different hypothesis, he thought it meant they want revenge against Mr Muto." He inclined his head in Yami's direction.


	3. Chapter 3

Week 3

_Hi mate, when I saw Pig was back without your letter I wondered if he had lost it, but then Hedwig came in and glared at the fluff ball like she was considering eating him, I laughed when Pig wasn't a bit cowed and went and bounced into your little lady. _

Harry laughed at the idea, stifling it against his pillow. The rest of the letter continued in the same vein, and Harry wished his relatives were half as relaxed as the Weasleys, he couldn't imagine Petunia getting in the middle of a water fight and then throwing her own water balloons like Mrs Weasley had. But it was still fun to imagine Fred and George soaked to the bone, even if he didn't believe that it had happened like that. The twins barely ever got pranked themselves.

Again he had received lots of letters, five this time, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mokuba and then a sort of muti-letter from Joey, Yugi and Yami that had been written by their friend Tea, for the most part, but had comments from all three of them interspaced between Tea's paragraphs. Then he looked at the letter carefully and realised many others had added comments. The main group of them, Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tea and Tristan had all signed down the end, but other signatures were added in the text of the letter. Rebecca, the young Ravenclaw who often clung to Yugi, Duke, Art, and Max.

He was starting to think that Yugi attracted friends and enemies in equal proportions. Or would that be Yami?

Maybe Yami attracted the enemy while Yugi worked his magic on making the enemy into a friend.

* * *

"So where are you taking us?" Tea asked, looking curiously out the windows of the car.

"Someplace safe." Was Croquet's answer.

"No." Yami resolutely stated. Tea had been expecting that response, but for a moment she had dared hope that for once they would leave the monsters to those trained to deal with them. "If they're after me then I have to stop them."

She closed her eyes and waited, knowing how her friends would respond to that, how she would respond.

"Yami…" Yugi began, "You're not doing this alone."

"It's not safe; you know what Dementors can do."

Dementors, soul suckers, bringers of dark memories and darker emotions. Her eyes flickered open and she clasped her new necklace in her hand. Her friends…

"No, I'm with Yuge on this one, you're not going alone. Do you even have any idea where to go? Or what you're going to do?" Joey said.

Yami slumped, before his crimson eyes met Tea's, Tristan's, Duke's and then holding Rebecca's. "Rebecca, I want you to stay with Tea, Tristan and Duke. They won't be able to see the Dementors."

"Oh no Pharaoh, I'm coming with you." Tea demanded, crossing her arms, "You're not leaving me behind." Don't you know that by now? We will never let you face the darkness alone.

Yami sighed, "Tristan?"

"You know me, I'm coming too. You won't get rid of us that easy."

"Duke, please, stay with Rebecca."

"You're not seriously considering going after these Dementors by yourselves?"

"What choice do we have? They'll come after us soon enough. Watch Rebecca for us?"

"But Yugi!" Rebecca implored, "I'm not a kid. I can take care of myself."

"You are just a kid Becs," Yugi said, "A bright kid, but still just a kid; we promised your grandfather we wouldn't put you in danger. Please do this."

"Wouldn't it be better for all of us to stick together?" Duke suggested.

"No, the Dementors won't know enough to target you and Rebecca, unless they see you with us."

"But what do you intend to do?"

"If nothing else I can send them to the Shadow Realm." Yami stated, not meeting any of their eyes.

"No, never Yami, you promised. Don't you remember what happened last time? It almost killed you last time, and that was just a few of them."

"It is, as you say, your decision, but perhaps you would consider checking out Mr Pegasus's library, he has many texts on the Dark Arts and defence against them. There will be information concerning Dementors there." Croquet offered.

Tea could see Yami hesitate, and Yugi nudge him, but then he nodded, "We will look."

* * *

Ombre wandered aimlessly. She had decided to bus hop today, Kari had used to think it was fun. It had been at first, but not today, not alone. So she had left the buses behind and wandered in a part of Domino she didn't recognise getting increasingly lost.

She finally sat down on the grass of a small park and watched the sun set. She was most defiantly lost, had no charge left on her mobile, not that like liked using the noisy thing, and she hadn't seen a phone box or even a shop for ages, far enough away that she would get lost again trying to find them.

Then the air took on a much nastier chill.

'Hello Ombre.' The voice was cold and lifeless, and as she spun round trying to locate the source she realised whatever it was had spoken in her mind.

"Who's there?" She called out.

'A friend of the shadows.' It whispered, and Ombre started to retreat backwards.

_Kari! _Her mind shouted, but it bounced off. Either she was too far away or…

'Now that isn't very nice, is it? I only wanted to talk.'

The chill came closer, and Ombre felt the dregs of her happiness drain out of her. Then she hit something… cloth, old and torn. She spun around, and a chill hand clasped her arm. She looked down at the too pale, almost rotting flesh, and began to panic.

Then she looked up, and saw the face. Eyes scabbed over and instead of a mouth there was a dark hole, and she remembered Harry's description of its breathing, the death rattle.

Dementor!

She tried to pull away, but her limbs felt like limp noodles, and where it grasped her arm was painfully cold.

"Please…" Her voice coming out hoarse and sounding unnaturally loud in the silence that surrounded them.

It's second hand rose to touch her face, and she drew away from its caress. The hand travelled further up and clutched at her hair.

Ombre whimpered.

* * *

The library had been large, and when they first saw it Yami had wondered how they would ever find anything useful. Croquet had led them into a half hidden room, a half sized version of the main library, and he explained that Pegasus had not thought it wise to leave the magical texts on display, and that the texts on dark arts were again hidden, so all they had to deal with was a few bookshelves fill of books.

Only a few bookshelves. A good few hundred books. Pegasus had after all searched for years on ways to bring back his wife Celia.

"What are we looking for?" Tristan asked, and Yami glanced at his friends. They all looked disheartened, but determined.

"Anything on dark creatures and how to defeat them." Yami replied.

"Yeap, ignore anything on necromancy, curses…" Joey trailed off.

"Defending against dark magic might be useful." Rebecca added.

"You lot don't really have any ideas do you?" Duke asked.

"It's just, Dark magic is a broad subject, we don't study it, only the defence against it, and that's been more about which creatures are considered dark, how to recognise them and defend against them. Dementors aren't covered until NEWT level, if then." Yugi explained.

Still, none of the friends approached the bookshelves.

"Harry knows the Patronus charm; he might know other methods against Dementors." Joey said.

"We have no way of contacting him; a letter would take days to get there." Yami said, "No, he's safe in England, we can do this ourselves." Yami approached the bookshelf, and glared at the books. "Most of these don't have titles." He carefully pulled one off the shelf, waiting for the attack he was sure would come.

Joey and Rebecca both sighed with relief when nothing happened. Duke looked at them, "You didn't actually expect that Pegasus would booby-trap his bookshelf?"

Joey shrugged, "The Hogwarts books in the forbidden section are." Joey started pulling books down off the shelf. "So how are we doing this?"

Rebecca sighed, "Haven't you ever done research before? Scan a book, if it might be useful put it in one pile, if it's useless put it in another. The question is; who would recognise if something had possibilities?"

"Yami's the best in Defence." Joey said after a moment, leaving unsaid 'except for Harry and Hermione.' It was strange that even through Harry was a lot younger than them, sometimes he seemed older, and Joey hated facing a threat when his friends were scattered across the world. It hadn't mattered years ago, the four of them, Yugi, Tristan, Tea and Joey had nearly always been together, and they were together again facing this new threat.

But…

It seemed the more friends they had the stronger they became, but the more they relied on their varied friends, the more their absent was felt when they weren't there. Hermione and Kari were their best researchers, but Harry was the best at fitting together seemingly unrelated clues, when it really mattered, Hermione tended to flounder under pressure, and Kari tended to spread herself too thinly.

And none of this thinking and missing people was getting reading done.

Joey glared at the book he had picked up, and stared at the words. He groaned, "Guys, I don't actually recognise the language."

"Give it to me Joey." Rebecca told him, looking up from her book. "Fun." She muttered sarcastically, "It's in old English. Maybe we should sort the books by languages."

* * *

Hermione poked at her breakfast. The soggy cereal and congealed into a lumpy mass that didn't look at all appetising.

She sighed again, and decided to put the radio on. It eerily quiet, both her parents had already left and no one else was in the house, not even Crookshanks. At first she had enjoyed the peace and quiet, something that was missing from Hogwarts, but currently it was grating on her nerves.

It didn't help that she was waiting for letters. Harry hadn't replied yet to her most recent letter, nor had Ginny or Ron. Neither Kari nor Ombre had replied at all, and apart from a postcard from Joey she had yet to hear from her friends in America.

The summer was the time to pursue personal projects, she told herself firmly, not to mope around missing friends that you would see in a few weeks anyway.

Four weeks before I see Ron and Ginny, seven weeks before I see the others.

She poked her breakfast again, and considered what she would do today.

A tapping sound came from the window and she almost fell off her chair. Rushing to the window she let in the small brown owl, which held out its leg, a letter attached.

"Thank you." She told him, taking the letter. She turned it over, and found the seal.

Industrial Illusions.

Her heart managed to soar and her stomach plummeted at the same moment. With trembling hands she opened the envelope, and stared in shock at the first line.

_Miss Hermione Granger,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have successfully secured a place on our internship program…

* * *

_

Several hours later Yami glared at the pile of books and considered which one to pick up next. Most of them had been eliminated; Pegasus had been mostly interested in one thing, getting Celia back.

Most of the books were old, and seemed to be in several different languages. Rebecca had proved surprisingly helpful; she could identify most languages, and read two dozen. Duke, Tea, Tristan, and Joey only knew English and Japanese well, although Duke could speak another couple of languages, and Joey had picked up bits and pieces of French, and Tea could make some sense of Russian.

Yugi and himself were capable of reading English, Japanese, Egyptian, Arabic, Cantonese, German, and Latin, although neither was entirely sure how they had picked up all those languages since Yugi was sure that five years ago all he could read easily had been Japanese.

A headache was brewing. He couldn't have known those languages, not when even a thousand years could change a language drastically, he couldn't imagine the changes five thousand years would bring.

He pulled one off the Egyptian pile, but quickly discarded it as useless, more talk of necromancy.

"Where are Dementors from?" He asked, staring at the pile.

"Azkaban." Rebecca said, deeply in her translating, not realising who had spoken.

"No I mean, where do they originate from? They must come from somewhere. Wouldn't it be better to look at books about that area rather than trying everything?"

"Good idea Yami, except we don't know where they come from, and Dementors have been turning up in most of the books on Dark creatures." Joey said wearily.

Yugi looked up, "No, that isn't true. They turn up in all the modern books, but they weren't in any of the older Egyptian books, or at least I haven't seen them."

"Have you seen any Egyptian books on Dark Creatures?" Tea asked, and Yugi shook his head.

"Most are on the Death Rituals."

Rebecca looked up from her book, "No one knows where they came from. The Dementors were everywhere until the British Ministry offered them Azkaban."

"But why take Azkaban, and then betray the Ministry?"

"Why did they take Azkaban in the first place? I mean muggles can't see them, and we haven't found any defence against them yet, these books haven't even mentioned the Patronus charm."

"And that doesn't even hurts them, it drives them away and stops them feeding."

"So there has to be something that the Dementors are frightened of, some reason why they decided Azkaban was better than…"

"Maybe they are just lazy? I mean why go to the trouble of finding your own food when it will be brought to you?"

"So why leave now?"

"Maybe the ministry was starving them."

"They wanted revenge."

* * *

Seto Kaiba woke and wondered where it was. A murmur from a sleeping Mokuba was enough to make the memories from last night rush in.

A terrified Mokuba rushing into his study with a story about a Dementor of all things floating across the grounds. The two of them had searched the house top to bottom and had found nothing, a trembling Mokuba clinging to him all the way.

Not even when they had finished searching had Mokuba been satisfied, insisting that he had seen the Dementor, and refusing to sleep.

Finally Seto had locked their wing, and locked them in Mokuba's room saying firmly that even Dementors couldn't get through locked doors. Mokuba had finally fallen asleep, and Seto had tucked him in, deciding to read on Mokuba's sofa, until he too must had fallen asleep.

"Mokuba…" Seto whispered, shaking his head, "What am I'm doing?" Torn between worry for his brother and the large pile of work waiting for him, his brother won. Signing onto Mokuba's computer he started downloading his emails and work schedule for the week, delegating the unimportant ones, rescheduling the ones he had to attend, and glaring at the one that could not be put off.

Pegasus.

* * *

Another day, another dozen books to be read. It was worse than studying with Hermione, at least she was organised and had a good idea of what to look for.

"I need a break." Yami said at last, sliding out of his chair. The others barely looked up; most of them had already taken a break at one point or another that morning. It was frustrating going through books, knowing that the answer had to be somewhere and not having a clue where to look.

He decided to wander through the corridors, Pegasus's place was a maze, not as bad as Hogwarts, but Yami wouldn't have been surprised to discover that some of the stairs had been moving around while no one was looking.

Finally he found himself in a ball room; the balcony doors had swung open, and were now gently banging against the wall. Yami almost closed them, but then decided to check out the balcony. He was above the garden, a hedge maze with familiar looking bushes at strategic points, it wasn't clear from above but Yami was sure they were in the shape of some of Pegasus's favourite monsters.

His eyes searched for movement; at first glance it appeared no one was in the garden.

Only…

There was something.

A dark piece of cloth fluttered in the wind, near the entrance to the maze, near Gemini Elf.

Yami considered it, and considered the maze of a house. He looked down, only one story up; he had fallen from worse before. He swung himself over the balcony, landing in a crouch.

A quick glance internally, no, Yugi hadn't noticed, he was too deeply in research mode.

He picked up the piece of cloth, and grimaced. It looked a lot like the fabric the Dementors wore, but they didn't leave parts of themselves behind, not unless this was a trap.

He spun around, looking beneath the balcony, and only seeing a shadowy enclave. He approached cautiously, and found a door, almost entirely hidden. He opened it, half expecting a trap, but like the rest of the mansion he was happily mistaken. He searched the area, but found no more clues; the entrance to the maze tempted him.

He looked again at Gemini Elf, and something glittered in the sun, hidden by the leaves of the bush. Yami reached in and pulled out a bracelet with a green stone as the centrepiece.

"_Yami?"_ Yugi's sudden noise made Yami jump, and the bracelet slipped into his pocket and out of his mind.

'_I'm fine. Just found something.'_ Yami called back to Yugi, and showing him the strange piece of cloth.

"_Dementor?"_

'_I don't know. Should we search the maze?'

* * *

_

Tears were once again threatening to fall, but Robyn didn't have time for them now. Another argument with her parents, but this one had been different. Her father had drawn his wand and shouted "Obliviate" at her, only she was quicker, her wand casting a shielding charm that stopped the memory modifying spell.

Then she had run, grabbing her backpack still standing by the door, and bolted.

It took her a minute to remember she could Apparate, and another moment to find a safe place she could do it from. Then she picked the first place she could think of, the Quidditch stadium she had left just a few hours ago. The place was dark and locked now, everyone had left either gone back home or to the pubs.

Tears threatened to spill. Where could she go? All her friends… she didn't have any real friends anymore, muggle or magical.

Well… it wasn't that late, maybe she could find a bed and breakfast, or a hotel that was still open.

But not here.

Not London, not any of the smaller places she preferred, not Scotland…

Where else could she go?

She sighed and then smiled. A Motorway rest stop. They would still have rooms, and would still be open, and who would find her? It wasn't like most Wizarding people ever used the Motorways, and she only knew them because she had gone to a muggle school. A quick pop and she was there, and if she had no real idea where the place was it was unlikely anyone else would find her there.

* * *

The maze had revealed nothing, the cloth even less.

Croquet confirmed that a Dementor should not have been able to get into the gardens.

Yami was half falling asleep when something caught his eyes. Old magic, very old magic.

Would it work?

He closed his eyes, thinking.

His hand slipped into his pocket, where a green crystal warmed to his touch and began to glow softly.

Alone. He would have to do it alone, it wouldn't work if his friends, if Yugi, was there. They would distract him, make him lose focus, make him lose his nerve.

He could do it, would do it for his friends, but not if they watched, not if they knew.

* * *

Kari came in and collapsed on her sofa, dumping her bag on the table.

She was still buzzing. Tired, but too wired to sleep.

Reluctantly she hauled herself out of the way too comfortable sofa and over to her computer. She patted the monitor as she turned it on, and went into the kitchen to find something to eat.

Soon the kettle was on to boil as she checked the fridge. Out came the milk, and some pre-cooked pasta that she nuked. Ombre liked pasta for some reason, and often left some in the fridge for whenever Kari came home. Actually, Ombre tended to cook enough to last a few days, and then divide it up into separate meals. The microwave was the one piece of Technology that Ombre seemed to like.

Then again Ombre seemed to like cooking, and was fairly good at it considering how bad Kari was. Kari had often teased her that the reason Ombre had learned to cook was so that she didn't have to use the phone to order food like Kari had used to, and still did more often than Ombre liked.

Food, hot chocolate, and a computer with internet access, what more would a girl want after a tiring day at work?

Well an email or two from her friends would be nice.

She looked at her email inbox in confusion. It was empty. She hadn't checked it in three days, after falling asleep instantly when she arrived home and too busy at work to consider checking her personal emails.

Okay, so most of her friends couldn't turn on a computer, let alone send an email, but Joey, Yugi and Hermione had all been emailing her practically every other day. Why had they stopped? She hadn't got an email from Yugi or Joey since Yugi won the tournament and Yami beat Yugi.

Hermione… well it wouldn't be the first time her parents had banned her from the computer and library because she was studying too much, not that the rest of the gang knew, Hermione was under the impression that if they did then they would tease her for it, or worse, drag her away from her books more often while they were in school.

No email from Ash, but he was on holiday.

She flicked through her friend list, and then stopped. Robyn…

Robyn Golden, her best friend before coming here, her best friend… only were they still friends?

Robyn had been the one to give her the Orb, as a Christmas present, but Robyn had never explained where it came from or why she thought Kari should have it, only that she thought Kari needed it more than she did.

Then… what had happened?

Robyn had been the strangest but most loyal of her friends before coming to Japan, but then after that Christmas they had started to drift apart. Robyn was never there when Kari went home, her email inbox was overflowing and no longer accepting new emails, letters and messages sent through Ash never arrived, but then Ash had never been reliable.

Somehow she had lost one of her best friends, and she didn't know why, and she hadn't even thought about Robyn until she started to feel lonely without any of her new friends.

What kind of friend was she? To just drop her best friend like that?

Kari turned off the computer, waiting until it had stopped humming.

"Ombre?" She asked, knocking on Ombre's door. No answer. Kari tried the handle, and the door opened.

The room seemed too tidy to Kari, too cold, too lifeless.

Ombre wasn't there.

* * *

'_Come alone and your friends will not be harmed.'_

'_Come alone and we will leave your friends alone.'_

'_Come alone and we won't touch your friends'_

'_Come alone and your friends will be safe.'_

Those four lines had repeated again and again in his head, ever since Yugi had fallen asleep. He stood by the window, leaning his head against the cool glass.

He couldn't ignore it.

As soon as he was sure his friends would not wake, he left.

He was doing it for them, they wouldn't be safe while the Dementors were free, and they wouldn't be safe while the Dementors were set against him.

He walked, knowing that the Dementors would reveal themselves when they wanted to. Hoping his plan would work. Knowing that if it didn't then his life, his soul, was forfeit.

* * *

Ginny laughed, Luna had tried to show her the steps of her latest attempt to see the well hidden, but when they had attempted the dance together both girls had ended up falling over each other, although only Ginny had immediately burst into giggles.

Luna smiled shyly. After two years of teasing from her dorm mates it was no longer easy for Luna to laugh, and three weeks of freedom hadn't been enough to erase the new found caution.

Ginny on the other hand had almost completely relaxed her guard around Luna. Luna had been her only friend for years, and while both considered the other a bit mad, there was a freedom in their friendship, a lack of expectation.

Luna had been the first person that had treated her like normal after their first year, the only barrier they had had to get over was that Luna was a Ravenclaw and Ginny a Gyffindor. That had lasted all of three seconds, with Luna pronouncing, "I don't care if you're in love with a pufflefin; you're still Ginerva Weasley, and I like her, even if you don't want to be my friend."

Their second year had been easier. At first the other second year Gyffindors would not speak with her, so she decided to hang about with Luna whenever she could. Then Mokuba, after glaring at the rest of the second year Gyffindors had sat next to her in their first class.

After a week Rebecca had decided to befriend Luna, and hence Ginny and Mokuba. House loyalty went out the window with their group; Rebecca was a firm fan and friend of Yugi's, while Mokuba was dedicated to his brother Seto. Ginny had almost burst out laughing when Rebecca turned up to the Gyffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch game wearing Mokuba's scarf, while Mokuba wore Rebecca's. Luna, ever pragmatic, had brought along two flags, a falcon in red and gold, and a lion in blue and silver.

It had surprised Ginny when her year mates listened to her when she said to lay off Luna. It hadn't surprised her when Mokuba backed her up. It had surprised Ginny when Rebecca asked for their help pranking the Ravenclaw second years. They hadn't learned to leave Luna alone, and the six other girls in Ravenclaw had formed a clique that left both Rebecca and Luna firmly on the outside.

Neither Rebecca nor Luna really cared, but Rebecca had a temper, and when the girls stole Luna's best clothes and artfully displayed them on the Christmas tree, Rebecca wanted revenge.

Charming the girls' underwear to start singing whenever a trigger word was said had been lots of fun, especially when it happened in Potions.

They had never told Luna.

"Mokuba wrote to me yesterday." Luna said dreamily, "I wonder if there are arvenoes in Japan, I would hate for him to be writing because he's unable to stop."

"Hmmm." Ginny nodded slightly, thinking, "He hasn't written to me yet."

"Did Harry?"

Ginny smiled, "Yeap, I can't believe it. It's so much easier to talk to him when he's not right in front of me."

"Harry's a good person."

Ginny nodded, seriously this time.

"Mokuba is too you know"

"I know…" Ginny said; her voice uncharacteristically quiet.

"Decided which one you like best yet?"

Ginny snorted, "Like either of them would be interested in me."

"Mokuba likes you."

"As a friend. Nothing else. He's more interested in Rebecca."

"And Rebecca is crushing on Yugi, so he has no chance until she grows up a bit."

"So I'm second choice?" Ginny snarled.

"He liked you first. He watches you, and he laughs at your jokes. I think he likes you."

"Maybe…"

"So…"

"So?"

"Harry or Mokuba."

Ginny groaned, "I don't know. I mean I like Mokuba, a lot. But Harry saved my life, I mean he's Harry Potter, any girl would dream of going out with her own personal shining knight in armour."

"But he's not…"

"Huh?"

"He's not your own personal knight. He's Harry Potter, saving people is what he does."

"I know."

"So Mokuba or Harry?"

"Luna, if either of them asked me out, I would say yes without a second thought."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yes, good. We get Hogmead weekends next year, I'll distract Rebecca and then you'll get Mokuba alone for long enough for him to ask."

"He won't."

"He won't in front of Rebecca or his brother. He might if you're alone with him."

"Luna… that is not going to work."

"Trust me, if it doesn't work then I'll ask your brother out to Hogmead. Deal?"

"Which brother?"

"Well…"

"Luna!"

"Fine, I'll ask Ronald."

"Good, the twins wouldn't be nearly embarrassed enough for me to be satisfied."

* * *

Yugi woke, feeling cold and fearful. "Yami." He jumped up, still remembering the dream, Yami had been in danger. He had to find him, make sure he was okay.

"_Yami?"_ He shouted down their link when his first mad scramble around the room revealed no Yami. The others began to wake.

'_I'm sorry Yugi. I have to do this.'_ The thought was whispered back, the link strained and nearly silenced.

"Yugi? What's the matter?" Tea, looking only slightly rumpled.

"Yami, Yami's gone, I think he decided to go after the Dementors alone." That was enough to wake up everyone entirely; Joey and Tristan practically fell out their beds and grabbed their shoes, while Tea slid out more gracefully.

"Right, we had better go after him and hit some sense into that empty head of his." Joey growled.

Yugi threw on his boots, glad for once that he had been too tired last night to undress properly. Then he saw something metal shine against his backpack.

Yami had left the puzzle behind.

Yugi picked it up, his three friends saw it and their frantic rushing stilled.

"Bloody hell."

* * *

Seto was busy.

Mokuba knew with pin point accuracy the fine line between his brother being truly busy, and his brother trying to be busy, and his brother being buried under the amount of work left to do.

This dictated Mokuba's behaviour, not that he would ever admit it, nor receive thanks for it.

If, like in the first week they had been back in Japan, his brother was buried in work, Mokuba would hack into Seto's computer and steal some of the work, returning it a day later all done, Seto never commented on it, so Mokuba assumed that Seto's memory went haywire when he was overwhelmed. It did in other matters, Seto forgot to eat and sleep, but the most telling was Seto would forget to make sure Mokuba ate and slept.

If Seto was just pretending to be busy, which happened more often than not, like any good leader his brother knew how to keep the loyalty of good workers, and get rid of the bad. The turnover rate at Kaiba Corp may have been terrible the first few years when Seto took over, but now, after seven years, Kaiba Corp had some of the most loyal employees in Japan. The turn over rate was still pretty bad, 30 percent in the last year, unless you ignored the figures and looked at who they were losing. They took in a lot of the students, and lost about half of them when they graduated from college or university, but they were in the unskilled positions.

The techs barely ever left. They hadn't lost a designer in three years, and the woman who they had, left on maternity leave and still submitted stuff to Kaiba Corp occasionally. The managers they currently had… well they didn't have enough managers really, in theory many managers were in charge of multiple departments, but in practise if a department didn't have a manager Seto or Mokuba was in charge, with the official manager dealing with the day to day items.

It really did say something about Seto Kaiba. What, Mokuba wasn't too sure on, but it worked, most of the time, and Seto was gradually filling up the open positions with people he trusted, often employees that had worked their way up the ranks.

But right this moment, Seto was busy, as in he would notice if Mokuba stole some of his work, and would be annoyed if Mokuba tried to distract him.

Mokuba was bored.

He was happy, after all the Dementor he had seen last night wasn't likely to follow them onto a plane, and he was happy that he was happy, because it proved, to his mind at least, that there wasn't a Dementor on the plane.

Well… there was one thing he could do if he was bored, and had been doing for the past few weeks. It still amazed him that three cute girls wanted to be friends with him. Three cute, intelligent and interesting girls. Well maybe amazed was the wrong word. He had an easy confidence in himself that was completely alien to most thirteen year olds. He could have picked to be friends with anyone in his year, only to find most of them to be immature.

Then Ginny had come in, her head held high, her brown eyes nearly on fire, and sat down in their first lesson of the year, completely ignoring the mean looks and nasty comments of the rest of the class.

The little voices in Mokuba's mind that sounded a lot like Yugi and Seto had began to argue at that point. Yugi said, _'she looks like she needs a friend,'_ and Seto said, _'She's the competition, challenge her.'_

Mokuba's own voice, or what he considered more himself than the other voices said; _'Now that's someone worth knowing.'_

He wasn't too sure what he was going to do when he decided to sit next to her, "Mokuba Kaiba." He said as he sat down, holding his hand out. She shook it and smiled, the fire in her eyes becoming guarded.

"Ginny Weasley." She replied.

"I don't think we said more than two words to each other last year."

"Well now you've said sixteen words in one day, you're getting better at this whole conversation thing." She replied impishly.

"Well you know, the whole talking to girl thing is so uncool. My last school didn't even think boys should see girls until we were properly married." He said, trying for his best serious voice, and winking at the end.

She laughed, and Mokuba grinned. He liked that laugh; he wanted to hear it again. She had seemed rather too sombre last year; he didn't think he had heard her laugh once.

"Shock! Horror! How did you ever bare it?"

"By sneaking into the girl's school, how else?"

She giggled, her eyes finally seeming to relax around him.

Then Professor Lupin entered the room, and the lesson began. But he had made his choice, his decision. Ginny Weasley was the one person in Gyffindor he wanted as a real friend, the others could go entertain themselves.

Through her he met the strange girl known as Loony Lovegood by most of their year mates, Mokuba called her Lois, to Ginny's confusion and Rebecca's laughter. Luna didn't seem to mind, and so Mokuba kept it. Luna was fun, the kind of random puzzle that while completely beyond him was fun to try and work out.

Rebecca on the other hand was hard work. Even through she had spent most of her first year out of action, Rebecca was one of smartest people in their year and it hadn't taken her long to not only catch up, but to start competing with him for the top grades.

It had shocked him to realise that all three of his girls were smarter than him, some time in January; all three of them had out done him on the transfiguration test. At that point he had looked at their grades.

Ginny's grades had been steadily improving, from about the middle range last year, to being one of the best students.

Rebecca's grades last year had been the best in their year, before the Slytherin monster, but then her grades had plummeted after waking up. It had taken four months of hard work, but she had once again achieved her top spot.

Luna's grades were all over the place, she had been doing well, but not excellent, on any test set, but her homework was either the best of their year or terrible. He then realised that someone was wreaking Lois's homework before she had a chance to hand it in.

He wasn't a sore loser. He wasn't. The fact that since then it had been a toss up between Mokuba and Rebecca over who was getting the higher marks through the rest of the year, and that Mokuba was suddenly working a lot harder than before was Seto's fault, not his. After all he wanted his brother to be proud of him, and there was no way he was going to let Rebecca win at anything…

But then since he and Rebecca were in the library more, so was Ginny and Luna… and Luna had been managing to keep level with them all when she was only half trying, and Ginny was just as competitive as Rebecca and him…

No one else in their year had managed to break into the lock they had on the top four spots, and their subjects had ended up being equally divided between them, Ginny winning DADA, Rebecca winning Potions, Luna winning Charms, and Mokuba winning Transfiguration.

"Mokuba, we're here." Seto's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Okay big brother." Mokuba replied, putting down his barely written letter to Ginny.

* * *

_Of all the stupid, idiotic, dim-witted things Yami could have done._ Tea ranted in her head as she ran, not having the breath to say them out loud. At least her dancing meant that she was in great shape, and was no longer struggling to keep up with the boys, but the ice cold air and the brewing storm meant that it was getting more difficult to breath.

The rain looked like it was about to break any moment now, and Tea was not looking forward to it.

_When they caught up to Yami she was going to tear into the fool like there was no tomorrow._ She grinned fiercely at the thought, knowing it was more likely she would end up ranting and crying on him at the same time if they found him safe.

_No, when they found him, because the Pharaoh couldn't get into danger without his friends standing beside him, she wouldn't let him._

_Yami…_

Then a dark mass of movement appeared on the horizon, circling around something at their centre.

_Dementors?_ She didn't know, couldn't see, they were too far away.

Tea pulled upon her flagging resources and put on another bout of speed.

* * *

Harry wasn't used to having money. At least not in the muggle world.

Kari had set up a bank account for him, and with Harry's permission had set up a weekly transfer from Gringotts. Kari had almost decided to transfer some of her own money over each week, but Harry had stopped her, but he had then had to explain that he had money from his parents. After some thought Kari had offered to look over how much Harry could afford, and with some relief that someone was going to explain money to him he had handed over his statements.

Kari had then worked out how much he had spent over the past three years, how much he would need to spend for the next four, and how much extra money he had. Then she had explained how much money he would need if he needed to leave his relatives again, everything from travel expenses, hotel expenses, food expenses, and a dozen other things.

At first the number had seemed scarily high, certainly to Harry, who had never had even a pound for pocket money before. Then Kari had dropped a bombshell on him. His parents had left enough money that he could spend his next four years at the most expensive hotel in England, and still have enough left over to pay for a small flat in muggle London, even taking into account the cost of his education.

Kari had then set up the Plan. Or rather the Plans. Harry was more than welcomed at any of their homes, by his friends at least. The Weasleys (Plan A) wouldn't mind if Harry came, but the problem was getting to the Burrow. Multiple searches on the public transport network had shown that it would take a bus, three trains and two more buses before Harry got there, with rather too much waiting around for hours for any of his friends to be comfortable.

Hermione (Plan B) was fairly easy to get to, a bus, two trains and a short taxi ride, and Harry would only be waiting around the train station for thirty minutes. The problem there being that Hermione and her parents would not be there for the greater part of the summer.

It had taken Kari six weeks to get a passport for Harry. When it had arrived Kari had explained how to get a plane, and how to get to Japan, and made sure he knew some key phases, so Kari and Ombre were Plan C.

Then Joey had made sure Harry knew he was welcome to visit where ever they were, and Yugi had given him a list of where they would be each week, and had sent Harry updates each week. So Joey, Yami and Yugi were Plan D.

Hermione hadn't been able to leave it at that, so each of the plans were colour coded, and he was meant to send Hedwig to Hermione if he did decide to leave.

It made living with his relatives bearable, except for the lack of food, only now Harry had more than enough money to buy something to eat, so he withdrew a tenner from the machine, the smallest amount he could withdraw, and then went into the second nearest supermarket, (rather than the local stores where someone might recognise him), and brought lunch.

If only he could buy new clothes as easily, but he knew that if he brought new clothes his relatives would assume he stole them, or demand where he had gotten the money.

Although… maybe saying Sirius had sent him some money would work. No. He wouldn't risk it. It was enough that he had enough to eat, and several escape routes planned if he needed them. He would save his parents money for later if he could, it would be a waste any other way.

* * *

Tristan lost his footing and slid down the side of the track they were on. A quick hand from Joey stopped him sliding further, pulling him up.

He felt so numb. Running had done nothing to warm him, the chill air stealing every bit of heat.

Yami was in a hell load of trouble.

They were close enough to see him now, close enough to see his fighting stance fail, close enough to see Yami fall to his knees.

Keep running, almost there.

Memories started to pop up, dragging him down.

He fought them off. Yami was in trouble.

Joey flung himself at a Dementor, his fists swinging wildly. Tristan couldn't make out what he was saying but knowing Joey it was along the lines of 'Get your filthy mitts off my friend.'

An image invaded his mind, a hospital waiting room, waiting for news and knowing it was going to be bad, another one, Joey falling to Marik, another one, picking on Yugi.

No, Joey needed him now. He tore out of the memories in time to see Joey slump against the Dementor, to see Yami fall to the ground.

No.

A chill hand grasped him, and he struggled to break free, his mind screaming 'Yami! Joey! Not his friends, not again, please not his friends.'

Bright light. The hand holding him crumbled. He ran towards Joey, and again the bright light, a ball of white light he saw this time, hit a Dementor, this time the one clutching at Joey.

The Dementors began to scatter, and Tristan looked back to see Tea supporting a half collapsed Yugi, and summoning another ball of light.

Wait… Tea?

Joey was okay, still there, even if his eyes looked glazed and in pain. Tristan darted to Yami, fearing the worse.

Dark empty eyes stared at nothing. Yami was gone.

Yami was gone…

Yami…

* * *

"This is the Kame Game shop, how may I be of service?" Solomon Muto said into the phone. He had barely even opened the shop before it had begun to ring.

"Gramps, this is Kari, have you seen Ombre?"

"No, not for a few days."

"Neither have I, she didn't come home last night, and I haven't heard from her in two days, and she's not answering her phone or our mind link." The panic in her voice was becoming increasingly clear.

"Have you called the police?"

"Not yet, I thought… I thought maybe she had stayed over last night. I don't know who else to call."

"Kari, call the police. Do you have any idea where to start?"

"No, I've barely spoken to Ombre since we got back; I've just been so busy."

"Calm down. We'll find her. She probably just got lost or something. You call the Police, I'll call the hospital. We will find her."

"Thanks Gramps."

No. This wasn't happening. This wasn't real.

* * *

"Yugi? Please answer me, please Yugi." Tea said, crying, she looked empty, hollowed by her emotions, hollowed by the strange white magic that had frightened the Dementors away.

A dream, a nightmare. The Dementors had got him. This wasn't real.

"Come on Yuge, you've got to be okay, we've got to get Yami back." Joey… if only you knew. His eyes burned, hot tears threatened to spill.

Worse nightmare he had ever had. Nothing he had ever imagined before could compare to the deep despair he felt now.

"Not…" He began, forcing the word out. It sounded strange, dark and hoarse.

Not real. This couldn't be real. Let it be a nightmare.

"Yuge? Come on buddy, we've got to get out of here." Tristan, looking haunted. What had he seen? No, wrong question.

Too real. This was too real to be a dream, even one caused by the Dementors.

"Not Yugi." He finally managed, and sunk into himself at the effort.

Yugi… what did you do? How did you do it? Why did you do it?

You can't be gone. Please Yugi.

'_Yugi…' _He called down the mind link, but it was gone, Yugi was…

"Yugi's gone…" His friends, no. Yugi's friends looked shocked.

"But… but we saw…"

"Yugi activated the puzzle." That was Tea, sounding almost defeated.

"Yugi swapped us. It should have been me…" Yami trembled for a moment, but the cold and the now pouring rain stopped them. Too cold to tremble. He couldn't remember ever being this cold before.

Empty.

Yugi was gone…

His Hikari, his light, his aibou.

"Yami?" It was Joey who asked, but they all waited tensely for an answer.

He nodded, and the winds began to pick up, tearing through their wet clothing and chilling them further.

"We still need to get out of here, before the storm kills us." Tristan's words, and Yami let the voices of Yugi's friends wash over him.

"Come on Yami." He felt someone pull him up and push him forward.

He stumbled, his cold limbs, no. Yugi's cold limbs not obeying him.

The rain hid his tears, but only a few fell before he stifled his emotions.

Vengeance called.

* * *

Draco spent part of every morning reading to his mother.

Bakura insisted. It was both torture and a kindness. Draco was inclined to think Bakura just wanted to torture him.

Watching his once lively mother sitting in a chair, staring out a window, too tired to do anything else, and not getting any better. Not enough energy left to do any of the things she used to love, not enough energy left to do anything.

The healers said her condition was stable, but still had no idea what caused it in the first place. Her magic was keeping her alive, keeping her from getting worse, but she wasn't getting better.

Draco had wanted to blame Bakura. Had blamed Bakura. After two years he no longer considered it important, there was no proof, no reason to believe Bakura was to blame, and Bakura himself…

For two years Bakura had ordered his life, had controlled his finances, his friends, everything.

Exactly as his father had done before.

When they had first met, Draco had believed he could use Bakura. They had become allies. Then Draco had introduced Bakura to his father. Less than a month later Bakura had been adopted and a month after that Malfoy Senior had been arrested and imprisoned. Draco's mother had fallen apart. Bakura had taken control. Narcissa had barely resisted.

Narcissa never resisted now.

He kissed his mother and placed down the book. "I'll see you tomorrow mother."

She nodded, smiling gently. The healer would be checking on her soon.

Ryou was waiting for him outside. "How is she?"

Draco had trained himself to show as little emotion as possible, but visiting his mother always left him low. "No change."

Ryou fell into step beside him, and Draco resisted the desire to shy away. He didn't understand the quiet Hufflepuff. Still didn't understand what Bakura saw in him, and claimed he didn't understand the sudden mood swings. Only he did, Draco was one of the best informed in his year on the affects of Dark objects. The Ring was a very dark object, and both Ryou and Bakura were addicted. It made him wonder if the Muto's were addicted to their Puzzle.

It was now normal for Draco to check if either of them was wearing the Ring. Ryou wasn't.

"Why were you waiting for me?" Draco asked when Ryou didn't say anything more.

"Did Bakura…" Ryou trailed off, but Draco just waited, there were hundreds of ways that sentence could end, and Draco wasn't about to risk his thoughts to a near stranger.

Ryou started again. "Did Bakura do something to your mother?" The question was near whispered.

"I don't know, I don't think so, I can't imagine how. She got sick in November, we were in Hogwarts. The healers don't seem to think so."

* * *

The exhausted gang arrived back an hour later, Tristan carrying one of the Muto's while Joey virtually carried the second. Tea stumbled along, half blind between the rain, and the afterimage of lights in her eyes.

None of them talked, none of them wanted to think about what had just happened.

Tea could barely bring herself to look at Yami or Yugi, and her mind and heart were screaming at her. It was Yami's body that Tristan carried, but it was Yami in Yugi's body, crimson eyes only confirmed it for her, the stance and movement shouting louder than words that it wasn't Yugi, but every couple of moments her mind would be tricked into thinking it was Yugi there, not Yami.

When they reached the house they just collapsed, basking in the warmth, and within moments there were people swamping them, and within minutes Tea found herself in a hot bath and soon after that she collapsed into her bed.

Then the tears came.

* * *

Serenity Wheeler glared at the phone, thinking; 'Ring!' while imagining all the trouble Joey was going to be in if he wasn't in major trouble now.

"Serenity, don't you think it's time to get ready for bed?" Her mother asked, tidying up their living room.

"I'm waiting." She said firmly, never taking her eyes off the phone.

"Darling, if you don't end this staring contest soon, I will."

"He promised."

"Boys are jerks, I'm sure your little friend has just forgotten."

"Last time he forgot to phone his life was in danger, the time before that his friends were in danger."

"Serenity…"

"I'll wait."

"I don't know why this boy is so important to you, at your age…" Her mother was muttering to herself as she left the room. Serenity's eyes left the phone long enough to glare at her retreating back.

"Because he's my brother." She whispered, knowing that her mother wouldn't want to know.

* * *

Yami woke to a strange emptiness, and while his mind was racing to work out what was wrong his heart was already there and breaking.

"Yugi…" My fault, my fault, why did you do it? Why did you save me? Gone… Yugi's gone.

Forever.

Not my fault, please don't let it be my fault, not mine, Dementors'. Their fault. They took my Hikari. They took my Aibou. They took my Light. They took my Yugi.

Destroy them, tear them. Feed their souls to the shadows.

Never again.

Make them hurt, make them feel my pain, make them pay.

Destroy them. Make them bleed. Make them suffer. Trap them in the shadows.

* * *

"Ronald, stop asking." Molly Weasley said with a sigh of impatience as she cracked another egg into the frying pan.

"But Mum! It's Harry, we can't just leave him there; you don't know what his relatives are like."

"And neither do you Ron Weasley, I'm sure the poor lad with be just fine for a few more weeks. The Headmaster said…"

"I don't care what Dumbledore said!"

"Ronald Billus Weasley! You take that back right now!" Molly said, glaring at him.

Ron sighed, and sank into his chair, "I'm sorry Mum, but I just don't want Harry to run away again, we don't know what might happen if he does."

"Now dear, Harry's a sensible lad, I'm sure he won't run away again. He knows how worried we all were."

Ron ran a hand through his hair, preparing to answer, trying to make his mother see reason, but a voice from the doorway answered for him.

"He knows Mum, but that won't stop him, the Dursleys hate him, and if they try anything this year he will just leave." The youngest Weasley spoke, coming down to breakfast at last. She was the last, the others being long gone, her father and Percy to work, and the twins over Lee's for the day.

"Don't be silly darling; they don't hate him, who could hate such a nice young man?"

Ron and Ginny shared a look, why didn't their mother understand?

"They hate magic Mum." Ron tried again.

"That doesn't mean they hate Harry."

"They don't feed him Mum." Ginny tried.

"Well… maybe they just don't know that magical children need more food than muggles."

"Please Mum, why can't he come and stay here?"

"Because he needs to spend time with his relatives. Dumbledore said it's for his own good. He can come in August."

"But that's months away!" Ron exclaimed, while Ginny dropped into her chair defeated, for now.

"Five weeks Ron. Now no more complaining or he won't come at all." Ron glared, as Molly turned back to her eggs trying their best to burn.

* * *

Duke watched as his friends fell apart. There was nothing he could do, except be there in their grief, and share in their grief.

Yugi was gone. It hadn't sunk in yet. He couldn't, wouldn't believe it.

Rebecca leaned against him, sobs making her body shake, and all he could do was hold her. He barely knew the girl, but neither Tristan nor Joey were in any shape to offer comfort, Tristan had almost redrawn completely, any share energy was spent holding up Tea, Joey on the other hand couldn't sit still, he paced and swore and slammed things about. The walls were lucky to have only a few dents.

"I wish Harry was here." Rebecca said quietly, "He knows how to deal with Dementors."

Then it dawned on Duke. Someone would have to tell all of Yugi's friends, and somehow they would still need to defeat or drive off the enemy.

"Joey? Who needs to know?" He asked, and suddenly he had all of Joey's attention, and he wasn't so sure that was a good thing.

Joey abruptly went limp, dropping to the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Oh man, everyone." He head sunk into his hands. "Grandpa, Ombre, Kari, Kaiba…" He began listing names, and the list went on and on.

Duke closed his eyes, "Yugi had a lot of friends." He said quietly.

"And we still need to deal with those Dementors…" Joey said, voicing Duke's earlier thoughts.

"You dealt with them last year, don't you know any way of…"

"Harry… he knows the charm, I never bothered… didn't think I needed it all that much, not until after exams, and then it was too late, and Harry did it, so it didn't matter I didn't know, Harry saved us… but he's… not here." Joey rambled, finally trailing off, sinking further into his shell.

Duke looked at the three friends, none of them were with it, all in shock and grief, and they wouldn't deal, couldn't deal, not right now.

"Come on Becs." Duke said, pulling Rebecca to her feet. "I have an idea."

"Is it a good one?" She asked as he guided her out the room.

"How about we ask Harry about how to deal with Dementors?"

She stopped, and stared at him, considering, seeming to weigh him with her eyes. Then she nodded, slowly. "Harry will help."

* * *

The island was empty.

Seto trudged back to the plane, Mokuba following, in high dudgeon.

It wasn't bad enough that he had to come to this island in the first place, but to have no sign of Pegasus, or even a lackey or two… something was seriously wrong.

Someone had wanted him out the way, and if he found out Pegasus was helping someone else take over his company, again… well maybe it was time to cut his ties with Industrial Illusions, there was some things that just wasn't worth the profits.

The pilot was gone.

The fuel tanks drained.

The batteries dead.

Someone was going to pay.

* * *

Tea didn't know how long she had been crying, leaning against Tristan while Joey had curled in on himself not two feet away. She did know it wasn't long after Duke left that she and Tristan moved to sit beside Joey. Then time became fuzzy again, until her heart started to burn with a new pain.

She didn't recognise it at first, her own sorrow mixing in with the rage she felt distantly. Then Joey spoke.

"I think that's Yami…" His voice was rough with confined emotion, and it took a while for the words to sink in.

An old memory came rushing back, a memory of Yugi falling, and the echo of sorrow and pain they had all felt.

"I need… we should… he needs us." Tea said, her confused words making sense to the two young men.

They stood together, after a momentary confusion over how to stand up while they were all tangled in their grief sharing and comfort giving.

Normally they would have run. Normally the only thing quicker than these three when a friend was in trouble was the fourth member of their group.

A normal day shouldn't have contained grief for a lost soul.

Unfortunately for these three it had happened often enough that while not exactly normal, it wasn't uncommon.

They ran.

They weren't quick enough.

Well at least Pegasus had been considering redecorating the place.

* * *

When Rebecca and Duke returned to the safe house of Pegasus's they were a little surprised.

The front doors, those massive heavy things that were impossible to open without the aid of technology (Or magic, but then neither Duke nor Rebecca had yet adjusted to thinking of Pegasus as magical) were no longer there.

They were in splinters, ranging from just a few meters away from the door way to a good two hundred meters away. The entry hall had fared little better.

"What happened?" Duke asked a group of very nervous looking employees.

"Mr Muto decided to leave. Mr Croquet said no. Mr Muto didn't like that answer."

"Yami's gone?" Rebecca asked, never being able to imagine that Yugi would be capable of such destruction.

"And Mr Wheeler, Mr Taylor and Miss Gardiner."

"Great, they left without us. Did they at least say where they were going?"

"Train station." Duke sighed; they would never find them unless they decided to signpost their location. Although knowing Yami, Tea, Joey and Tristan it wasn't unlikely that they would end up in the middle of the biggest disaster this side of the US.

* * *

Far away a sleeping boy woke suddenly. Bright green eyes scanned the room for danger. With a groan he rubbed his scar, before realising that the scar didn't hurt and wasn't the source of his dream.

It wasn't Voldemort.

Rolling out of bed he pulled up the loose floorboard, and taking out the small notebook filled with numbers. Contact numbers for his friends, not all of them, and it would be very expensive to call anyone.

Maybe it was just a dream…

The same dream he had had for the past few days.

He could no longer shake the feeling that one of his friends was in danger.

Harry crept down the stairs silently.

Letters fell through the letterbox; the clanging of the letterbox shutting sounding unnaturally loud to Harry's fear heightened senses.

The warm glow he always felt when he saw a letter addressed to him was subdued by the worry.

* * *

AN: Wow, another chap done, and the adventure is underway, and next chap is being so much more fun to write, even if it is taking longer than all other three chaps put together, but then it's christmas holidays, I should get lots of writing done next week.

Thank you for all your reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

There was only three letters this week, one from Ginny, one from Ron, and one from Duke Devlin. He didn't know Duke; not really, Duke was one of Yugi's friends. He opened that letter first, before anything else, before breakfast, before the postman was even halfway down the path.

_Harry, Something bad happened. Dementors got Yami, only we think they might have got Yugi instead. Joey said you're the only one who knows the right spell, the Pantones charm or something. The guys are completely out of it, Tea's in shock, Tristan and Joey aren't much better, and the Moto we do have left is shell shocked. I didn't know how else to contact you, phone us as soon as you get this letter. Duke._

"The Patronus charm." Harry whispered. The he did something he never would have considered in a million years. Well… considered it yes, go through with it? Unlikely. But his friends were in danger.

He popped the lid of his trunk and grabbed the backpack, glad that Kari had placed a feather light charm on it, after agreeing to keep most of his stuff in storage with her stuff. All that he owned was in the backpack, not that he had a lot with him, some clothes, his money and his broom. His books and homework had gone with Ron, his treasures were scattered amongst his friends. "Hedwig, find Hermione." He whispered, sending her out the window with a white ribbon tied around her leg.

Last year he had run away without thought, too filled with fear and panic to think things through. This year he had decided that if anything happened he would be out of there like a shot, not willing to put up with his relatives any longer.

Joey and Kari had taught him well, and had helped him pack and plan. After last year they weren't willing to trust to luck that their friend would be okay if he had to make a quick escape again.

It was just past dawn, and he waved to the post man as he passed. The nearest phone box was three minutes away, near a Chinese takeaway that his relatives hated.

He pulled out the letter again and began pouring pound coins into the slot, when it reached six he started to dial the number.

"Duke Devlin speaking, who's this?" The voice sounded worn, but not like he had just woken up. It was around 6am here, must be about 11pm there…

"This is Harry. What happened?"

"Harry? Prove it."

Harry ground his teeth and wanted to hit something, he'd been hanging around Joey too long, "I go to a school in Scotland called Hogwarts, my house is Gyffindor, I play seeker and Yugi's reserve chaser, Yami and Yugi aren't twins, and Yami appeared suddenly in November almost three years ago, but before that he was possessing Yugi and before that he was locked in the Millennium puzzle…"

"Stop, okay I believe you. They aren't here."

"What!"

"Well they left Yugi here… Yami, Joey, Tea and Tristan all headed off to stop the Dementors."

"Wait, did Joey remember the spell?"

"No, I don't think he has a clue and neither does Yami, but from what I could piece together Yami was just reacting when they left."

"Yami doesn't think straight without Yugi. Where are they headed?"

"South, we think. What's the spell? I'll pass it on to them."

"Expecto patronum, but it's not that easy. If Yugi's gone I doubt Yami and Joey are in a fit state to cast it. It requires happy thoughts, or it won't work, it'll just drain them. Did they have plenty of chocolate?"

Harry watched his seconds count down and added another pound coin.

"What does chocolate have to do with anything?"

"It's the medicine you need after exposure to Dementors; don't tell me they forgot that?"

A sigh at the other end, "I don't know. I don't know what they took with them."

_Pretty lights in the sky, was I the only one who had worried about them?_ He knew enough about signs to know that was a bad one, end of the world bad.

"Duke, tell them I'm coming and not even Voldemort is going to get in my way, they'll know what I mean."

"Wait, Harry…"

Harry put the receiver down.

Next he pulled out his wallet and counted the pound notes, then his money bag and counted the gallons. Hopefully it would be enough. At least Kari had helped him get his passport. Now all he needed was an airport… well Kari hadn't gone over bus routes with him for nothing.

The bus station was only twenty minutes away, and there was a direct coach to Heathrow twice a day, best of all no one would be able to track him, not unless they checked the airport, and by then it'll be too late.

"Heathrow Airport please."

* * *

Yami scanned the screens, dozen of trains all leaving soon, but only one going the right way, or at least from what Tea said only one seemed to be going in the right direction. 

"Four tickets for the Richmond train."

"Yes Sir, plenty of room left. Are you and your friends students? Students get a discount." The woman said cheerfully, ignoring Yami's sour glare.

"Can you just sell me the tickets?"

"Yes Sir, Right away Sir. Business class or Economy?"

Yami felt his rage building, "I don't care, I just need to get on that train."

"Well Sir, Business class does come with a free meal, and it is eight hours to Richmond."

"Fine, business class."

"Would you like any travel insurance to go?"

"No." Yami practically growled. First Richmond, then Roanoke…

* * *

"What is it?" Draco asked, staring at the metal monsters on his lawn. 

"They are motorbikes." Ryou replied with a glance at Bakura, "Why are they here? I thought muggle stuff didn't work near magic."

"Electronic don't. These will." Bakura said firmly.

"I don't want anything to do with anything muggle." Draco whined, turning his back on them and stalking towards the house, before falling flat on his face.

"You are going to learn to ride on the moped; otherwise we'll leave you behind for when your father comes visiting." Bakura growled, and Draco went several shades paler.

"What about Mother?"

"I've asked St. Mungo's to take her in for observation for the next month."

"But…" Draco whinged.

"You won't be here. We're going on a little road trip, you said you wanted training." Bakura said, and Draco wondered why Bakura seemed so normal instead of stake raving mad like he normally did whenever Draco complained about anything.

"Please tell me we won't be doing anything illegal." Ryou enquired, looking up from his examination of the bikes.

Bakura transferred his glare to Ryou, "Just a few lessons on getting in and out of difficult spots." He said slowly, "You two got caught too often last year."

Apparently Bakura was having a sane day.

* * *

Harry glanced at his watch and winced. 3pm, he had forgotten to set it back. Oh well American time went back not forward… didn't it? He couldn't remember. 

He stepped out the sunlight and felt his world swirl in the bright light. Wow he was tired, too tired to think straight.

Taxi. Get to Duke's house. Worry later.

He pulled out the piece of paper he had written Devlin's return address on and stared at it for a moment.

Taxi, taxi, taxi… where was the taxi queue? He looked up, searching for a sign; surely they would have put one near the exit of the airport?

There. Taxi.

"Hi driver, would you know where this address is?"

"Yeah kid, but where's your parents?"

Harry ignored the tight burning in his chest, and started to tell the story he had made up, "They're staying with my cousin… my brother was in an accident, I wasn't even meant to be coming here, but…" Harry trailed off.

"Its okay kid, get in, do your parents know you're coming?"

Harry quickly climbed in the back, trying not to look relieved, he didn't know the area well enough to find Duke's place by himself, didn't know the magical community at all or he might have tried to get whatever the local version of the knight bus was.

"They were at the hospital, I just jumped on a plane as soon as my cousin told me, he knows I'm coming, I don't know if he told my parents…"

"Don't worry, I'll get you there kid."

Harry watched as the scenery changed, and Harry silently marvelled at the sheer size of everything. But he couldn't get out of his head, _Yugi's gone, my friends are in trouble._

_It's taking too long._

"Here we are kid," The driver said, pulling up.

Harry reached for his wallet, glanced at the meter reading $17.30 and handed over a 20. "Thanks drive." Harry told him, and climbed out the taxi.

He stumbled and the world tilted. _Bloody hell_, he thought, Ron's favourite expression it sometimes seemed, he had never been quite this tired before, not even when Petunia starved him for three days straight.

Somehow he made it down the driveway to the doorway and stared at the lack of a door. He reached for the doorbell, examining the strange cracks around the doorframe. There had defiantly been a door here not all that long ago, and he could easily guess what had happened to it, he suspected it was the same thing that had happened to his non-aunt last year and the glass on the snake's pen four years ago.

Before he actually rang the doorbell an elderly gentleman appeared, standing in the doorway without a door, he was tall and greying with a very British look about him.

"Hi, I'm Harry, I'm looking for Duke." Harry said, wondering for the first time if he had gotten the wrong place.

"Ah, yes. Just a moment, do you want to come in?" The man led him to a living room, "I'm Professor Hawkins by the way."

"Nice to meet you Professor, but I need to speak to Duke, it's important." Harry replied, trying not to let his tiredness show, he looked at the sofa as Hawkins said something about fetching Duke, and chose to remain standing. Chances were, tired as he was he would just fall asleep if he sat down.

A moment later a familiar face walked into the room, and stared at him.

"Harry Potter?"

"Hi Rebecca." Harry said wearily, wondering how the young Ravenclaw had gotten mixed up in this… but then she was friends with Yugi.

"How did you get here?" She asked, still staring.

"I flew." He answered. "Do you know what happened with Yugi?"

"Yes… sort of. I don't understand it."

The Professor walked back in the room, followed by a young man. Harry's tired mind started poking him, but he wasn't sure why.

"Duke! He's Harry Potter!"

Harry stared at Duke, and tried to smile.

"Who?" Duke asked, looking confused while Professor Hawkins stared at Rebecca like she was acting strange.

"Harry Potter! The Harry you were talking to on the phone last night!"

"Wait a sec, that doesn't make since, Harry was in England."

"That's my point, it can't be Harry! He can't be here."

"Great, what do I need to prove it this time?" Harry glared at Rebecca and he flipped up his hair, "See my scar?"

"Where were you when you phoned?"

"Surrey, in England. A payphone if you want to be that precise."

"Okay, how did you get here?"

"As I told Rebecca, I got a bus to the Airport, and flew here, then got a taxi."

"But that was only seven hours ago!"

"I know; the plane took ages." Harry moaned.

"The taxi from the Airport should have taken half that time!"

Harry glanced at his watch. 3.40. "Only about thirty minutes actually."

"What plane did you take?"

"I don't know. It had a strange name, like A330 or something."

Duke and Rebecca share a look. "Harry, it should have taken your plane about eight hours to reach America."

"Oh…"

Suddenly the last of Harry's energy drained out of him, and the world went dark.

* * *

Kari was having a bad day, well a bad week to be truthful, maybe even a bad month if it kept up to it's current standards. 

First Ombre had gone missing without a trace, and Kari had no idea what to do, since none of her friends were answering their phones, or emails, and now the Kaiba brothers had gone missing, their plane dropping off the radar somewhere between Duellist Kingdom and here.

Seto's PA was in near tears, and Kari could understand why, chances were she would get fired as soon as Seto returned.

Not only had Pegasus rearranged the meeting a week ago, but then he had cancelled it, but before the PA could even alter Kaiba's schedule he had gone, taking his personal plane rather than the private jet she had arranged, and now Kaiba was missing.

The party had flopped.

Why the PA had thought arranging a surprise party for the Kaiba brothers was a good idea… not that anyone had thought to ask Kari, or even told her about the party until an hour before it was due to start.

It had started as a good party, despite Kari's lack of interest, but just a couple of hours in they had received the news that Kaiba's plane had disappeared. The guests of honour wouldn't be coming, and now the future of the company, their futures, was being called into question.

And Kari found she couldn't leave these people, her people. Couldn't abandon them like she had been considering, even if it tore her in half.

_Ombre…_

_I'm sorry._

_Please be fine, please be alright, I don't know if I can help you, but I know I can help them, and this is my dream, and you've always been alright before._

_I wouldn't even know where to start looking for you, but I know what to do here, and I can't do this alone, but I'm alone, all alone, always alone, you left me alone._

_Please be okay…

* * *

_

No one expected Harry to collapse, so he hit the floor hard before anyone could react.

"Harry!" Rebecca cried out and rushed to him, then hovered not at all sure what to do, she looked to her grandfather for help.

"Its okay Rebecca, Mr Potter probably just used up a lot of energy to arrive here so fast." The Professor said, checking Harry's vitals.

"But how? If he used magic on the plane why didn't it fail? Technology always fails when you use too much magic."

"It doesn't matter Rebecca."

"But it does, if we could use magic with technology then just think of the advances we could make."

"Duke? Do you think you could move Harry to a bed? He probably won't wake up for several hours yet."

"Yeah, sure Professor. He's okay to be moved?"

"Just tired I think. There's very little wrong with him other than that."

Duke picked up Harry, surprised at how much smaller he seemed now, and he had seemed small before. All hard angles and very little fat on him. Yugi had been heavier.

* * *

They had barely said a word to each other in almost ten hours. The silence was stifling. Yami had gone all dark and gloomy on them, not that Joey could blame him, and the awkward silences that hadn't seemed to exist before was now back in full force. 

Tea had made some half hearted efforts at conversation, but silence quickly fell again.

"Should the train be this empty?" Tristan asked, startling Joey out of his thoughts.

"We're the only ones here?" Joey asked, glancing around the coach. Tristan was right, the train, or at least this part was completely empty, not even an extra bag, or a single piece of rubbish, except what was theirs.

"This feels… wrong." Tea spoke up, standing and glancing through the small window of the door that separated the next coach. "It doesn't look like there's anyone through here either."

"Joey, Tristan, you two take that end, me and Tea will go this way. There should be someone else on this train… a conductor? Or who ever runs that shop." The shop that Joey would normally have found a long time ago, third train, more hours of travel than he had lived years, and not enough sleep. Not proper sleep, only naps. Yami hadn't wanted to stop, and Joey suspected that if they did Yami would take off on his own while they slept.

They jumped to obey, or would have done if they hadn't been feeling so listless, Joey saluting with his wand. "Right to, captain."

Tea was clutching her necklace again. "Be careful."

And then they were gone.

In the dark wind torn place that was beneath the train, something watched, and grinned, and started to carry out its mission.

* * *

Coming back downstairs he was surprised to see Rebecca was still in the same lively argument with her grandfather that he had left to battle it out hours ago, pleading that he had business that had to be dealt with as soon as possible. 

"He's just a kid." Duke put in when he realised they were discussing Harry.

"Like I'm just a kid? Like Mokuba is just a kid? Harry is like Yugi, he has to help people, and his friends always come first. The main difference between them is that Harry keeps his friends at a greater distance than Yugi."

Duke nodded, he had seen some of the determination on the kid's face, reminding him of another time in what seemed like the distant past, when Yugi had been facing him.

"How well do you know Harry?" Duke asked instead of voicing his thoughts.

Rebecca flopped down onto the sofa, "Barely at all. I mean he's a really private person, but I've watched him sometimes, everyone does, Harry watching is Hogwarts number one sport."

Duke thought of the kid that had just moments ago arrived at his door, messy black hair, determined green eyes, and thin to the point of being dangerous. "Now that I just don't understand, why would you girls be watching him?"

Rebecca laughed, sounding rather cynical and hard for a twelve year old girl, "Not like that Duke. Everyone watches him, and not because he wants the attention, at first it was just because he was the boy-who-lived, but that wore off after a few days, at least in my year, the others were still watching him and I didn't know why at first, but then the Gyffindors in my year started watching him again and following his lead, not Yami's or Yugi's, but Harry's. Do you have any idea how strange that was? They already had a leader, they had Mokuba Kaiba, but Mokuba tends to follow Kaiba, Yugi or Yami depending on the situation, and the rest of his group didn't like that, so now while they'll listen to Mokuba and sometimes follow his lead, their leader is Ginny and she follows Harry and I don't think he even knows it."

"Rebecca, you still haven't explained why you're watching him."

"Because he's Harry Potter. He's good and decent and stands up for everyone, and never asks for anything. He fought a gigantic magical monster to save a girl's life because it was the right thing to do. He's not much bigger than Yugi, and he fights against a Basilisk because he felt he had to. And when things go really bad he's always right there in the centre of it all."

"So is Yugi."

"That's my point, he's a hero, but he doesn't want all the attention, he fades into the background if you're not watching, but he's always where he needs to be."

"He's still a kid, and I think we should send him home."

Rebecca shook her head violently, her two pig tails flying back and forth.

"I'm not going back." Said a voice from the doorway.

"Harry, I think you should rest." The Professor said, standing up from his chair.

"I'm fine." Harry declared, and he did look fine, despite having been out for only four hours.

"You collapsed in the middle of talking to us." Duke stated.

"I know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to delay you, but how are you going to find Yami and the others?"

"Not a clue, they aren't answering their cells."

"Cells?"

"It's a telephone you can carry with you Harry." Rebecca answered and he nodded.

"Advanced technology?" This time Rebecca nodded. "There's the answer then, you said they were heading to those Atlantian ruins, if they made it then their mobiles wouldn't be working."

Duke, Rebecca and Professor Hawkins shared a look, "Harry, no one said anything about Atlantian ruins…" Duke said slowly.

Professor Hawkins coughed slightly. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. There was an accident involving a train early this morning. Somehow half of it ended nearly three hundred miles away from where it was due to be." The three youngsters stared at him in disbelief. "Yami and the others could have made that train, and I shouldn't tell you this, but the train did end up very near some ancient ruins that could very well be Atlantian, my team has yet to identify them. But Harry, we haven't told anyone about them yet, I mean we only discovered them a few months ago. There are maybe a dozen people who know of them."

"But someone told me…" Harry trailed off, his eyes becoming distant. "That's where they're heading, both Yami and the Dementors."

"Harry, you can't know that." Duke put in, trying to maintain logic.

"Dementors can stop technology from working; they drain away energy, both magical and electric." Harry said, his eyes wandering about the room slowly, as if looking for something.

"I didn't know that." Rebecca said.

"Well last year I decided to find out as much about Dementors as I could, and if they've gone rogue there's a chance we can get Yugi back."

* * *

Hermione sighed as she scribbled out another page angrily, brushing away the tears. 

"Oh Harry…" She shook her head when her eyes met Hedwig's again.

The white ribbon was wrapped tightly around her hand, three symbols messily drawn on it. Danger, flying and don't owl me.

One of her best friends had fled the country, and she was leaving in just a few days.

Ron needed to be told, but not yet. Harry would need a few days head start before the Ministry started to look for him, or they might just send him back to his relatives.

Harry wouldn't run unless his life was in danger, and even then it was a coin toss. For Harry to run it had to be very bad, or maybe he had just reached his breaking point.

At least he hadn't added a forth symbol, wizard trouble.

* * *

Harry was thinking as both Duke and Rebecca packed. The magical world seemed to know him because of three things, black hair, green eyes and his scar. There were very few pictures of him around, but if anyone came looking for him and thought to ask the muggles what were they going to say? Black hair, green eyes and a lighting bolt scar on his forehead. Now plenty of people had black hair, but only a few had green eyes and no one else he knew had the same kind of scar on his forehead. 

He should probably wear a disguise of some kind, something to cover his scar.

The words _I'm not going back_ were dancing through his mind, half panicked, half excited, but they were true, there was no way he was going back into his cage when his friends were in danger.

Both Duke and the Professor argued with him, but Harry hadn't listened, his friends were far more important than him. Rebecca didn't argue, and Harry realised he had another girl infatuated with the idea of Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived.

Then he had dropped the bombshell, "There's a chance we can get Yugi back."

"What!? How?"

"There haven't been any new Dementors in three hundred years, ever since the ministry discovered how to communicate with them and came up with the Azkaban agreement, before that Dementors were a terrifying danger, the Patronus charm only drove them away, and the only thing that could kill a Dementor was so rare that when ever such a person was found they were treated like kings and queens and more or less imprisoned within a Wizarding community."

"Joey said that Tea did something that frightened them off."

"Really? I thought Tea was a muggle."

"She is."

"Oh. Anyway, when a muggle is kissed they just become food, so Dementors hardly ever kiss muggles because what would be the point? They can feed off them continuously just by being around them. Wizards on the other hand…" Harry shivered, the idea had freaked him out when he first realised what the text was talking about, "If they steal the soul of a wizard they can either use it as food, or they can use it to breed."

There was silence, and Harry worried.

"But how would that help us?"

"Because it means Yugi's soul is well hidden, not being torn into pieces and eaten." Harry took a deep breath, "And there's other factors needed to create new Dementors, one of which is time, so if we find Yugi before the dark of the moon…"

"Yugi will be alright?" Rebecca's voice was a tight whisper, and Harry stared at the floor.

"I don't know I'm right, but the Dementors are not allowed on American soil, it goes against dozens of agreements, and all common sense, I mean someone would have to be either very stupid or completely crazy to let them come here."

"Why? Other than the soul sucking?"

"Because while all of the nesting sites in England and Europe were destroyed they only ever found two in America, which makes no sense when you consider there were forty eight sites in England alone."

"But why go rogue now?"

"Three hundred years ago they were dying out, and the Wizarding community were so organized that their population was deceasing, they simply could not replace those they lost. There are only two hundred and sixty eight of them left. That's nothing, and at the time the Patronus charm was considered vital to learn, so every witch or wizard over the age of sixteen knew it. They were dying out and they knew it, so when they were offered Azkaban they took it. Now only a few can cast the Patronus charm properly, it's not even in the exams, and the rare gift capable of destroying a Dementor has disappeared because it is not an inheritable trait, and there's no way of detecting the gift apart from if they get attacked by a Dementor."

"But Tea…"

"If Tea has the gift then she's in even more danger than ever before."

* * *

Joey groaned. He ached all over and was so cold, so very cold, and wet and… "Arrg!" Sunlight. Blasted Sunlight. 

He shivered. Then his mind informed him of an important little fact that his sleepiness had protected him from. Yugi was gone.

He dragged himself awake, and his heart sank further. He was alone.

"Tea? Yami? Tristan?" He yelled, half expecting no response from the surrounding area. No train tracks. How had he gotten here?

"Joey! Over here!" A familiar voice yelled back, he grinned slightly, ignoring his many new aches and pains and dashed over to where Tristan's voice was coming from.

Tristan had propped himself up against a rock, looking rather pale and battered.

"Tristan? You okay?"

"Can't put any weight on my leg, but I don't think it's broken, where's Yami and Tea?"

"Not a clue. I have a better question. Where are we?"

"Can't you just follow the tracks until you get somewhere?"

"What tracks?"

"Joey, this isn't the time for jokes. We must have been thrown off the train, it crashed didn't it, so the tracks must be near by."

"No train, no tracks, no road, no paths, not even a forest trail." Joey quickly summed up.

"What did we do this time?"

* * *

"Before you go running off, it's probably a good idea to disguise Harry." Professor Hawkins had been quiet through all their discussion of what to do, only now as they drew to a close did he feel the need he speak up, all three of the youngsters had been quite clear that while they would be racing off into danger, he was no allowed. 

Harry grimaced but nodded, "That's probably a good idea, I'm too easy to recognise from a description."

Duke examined him thoughtfully, "If we just cover the scar and say you're my cousin or something…"

Rebecca giggled, "You look a lot more like Harry than his actual cousin."

Harry ignored her, "If I had a headband like yours Duke…"

"You mean my bandana?" Duke nodded, "Just a moment." He was back five minutes later with what looked to Harry like a green and black piece of cloth. "Try this." He handed the cloth over and Harry stared at it, completely lost.

"Um…"

"Oh give it to me." Rebecca said, snatching the cloth and folding it, "hold still." She told Harry as she tied it around his head. "Look right?" She asked Duke, and Duke smirked.

"Becs, you better stick to your braids." Duke did little more than touch the bandana before it fell off; he refolded it and retied it as Harry tied not to flinch away. He hadn't had anyone messing with his hair since Petunia gave up on it years ago.

"Okay, good to go." Duke declared, and Harry nodded, at least it didn't feel like it was going to fall off anymore.

* * *

Half way across the world an irritable Kaiba paced back and forth. The younger was much more patient when it came to forced inactivity. 

They had tried everything they could think of to get off the island, and were left waiting for rescue. Someone had neatly destroyed any and all means of getting off the island, except for swimming, and that wasn't recommended, and every possible method of contact was dead, except maybe smoke signals.

So Seto Kaiba raged impotently, while his younger brother worked on perfecting his letters, after all there was a chance that a owl might find them, sooner or later.

Then, in the distance, but coming closer, they spotted a boat.

* * *

Harry hesitated at the doorway. 

Both the doctors and the healers said Yami… Yugi… Moto wouldn't wake up. He wasn't there anymore.

Neither was Pegasus, but Harry, having never met the man, only felt a vague sense of discomfort knowing that just down the hall lay a body similarly with no soul, only Yami had a soul, he was just in the wrong body.

He had wanted… something. He heard voices coming closer, so with a sigh he stepped into the room and closed the door.

Okay, so they might get Yugi back, but he wouldn't be the same. All the books had said… broken into pieces, and unable to become whole again, even if all the pieces could be located.

Except… Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle hadn't he, so surely putting his own soul back together couldn't be half as hard, and maybe Yami could help…

Harry sighed. His friend was gone. He would try to offer hope to the others, they needed hope more than ever before at the moment, but he would admit it to himself if no one else, Yugi was gone.

Rebecca had said to grab Yugi's deck, but still Harry hesitated.

"I'll try Yugi, I'll do my best, and I will make sure Yami doesn't do anything he'll regret. There's still hope you know, we might be able to get you back. I don't know if I should tell Yami, he'll do anything to get you back, who would he choose Yugi? If the choice was you or the world?"

Moto didn't move, just continued to breathe steadily in and out. Harry could almost believe Moto was sleeping.

Harry, feeling like a traitor, quickly searched Moto's pockets.

The deck was gone; all that Moto had was a random necklace.

So Yami had taken both decks?

Harry shrugged and examined the necklace. A pale stone lay at the centre of an almost Celtic design. It was nothing like he expected either of the Moto's to have, their jewellery tended to be heavy, almost blocky, and they never wore any neckpiece that could get tangled with the puzzle.

It was a puzzle.

He pocketed it for later, maybe Rebecca knew what it was.

"Goodbye…"

He left the unnaturally quiet room. It was time to go. They had to find Yami… somehow.

Dark eyes flickered open briefly, and the breathing hitched out of rhythm for a moment.

Harry had already gone.

* * *

AN: This chapter is the first half of their third week. I'm going on the theory that since my school summer holiday was ten weeks so is theirs, the original plan was to have ten chapters, one for each week. Then this chap grew and grew, and between coursework panic, lack of sleep, and mad plot bunnies, and by mad I mean I was wrote about sixty or more pages on something I will never publish, never had any intention of publishing, or even letting my friends (except Joey) see over a single weekend because the rabid plot bunny wouldn't let me write anything else. Anyway, week three will come in two parts, and this story will now be eleven chapters long. 

I've also decided I won't be answering, or even reading reviews until the story is finished. I'm one of those strange people who can't continue a story if I know what other people think of it, whither it's all praise, terrible flames, or useful criticism. So Joey's going to be reading my reviews for me, and I'll reply when the story is done, or maybe I can ask Joey to… But thank you for all your reviews, I taking the fact you reviewed in the spirit it was intended by writing more. Hopefully one day I'll be able to read a review without getting writer's block, but until then, thank you.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry was currently in the middle of no where, flying high, and following the train tracks, looking for the wreck. Duke clung tightly, and Rebecca was following.

"This is so unreal." Duke muttered.

Harry smiled grimly, "Just be glad of the cushioning charms. You wouldn't want to fly for long on some of the school brooms. Believe me, I know."

"Very glad, very, very glad, but even through I sort of believe in magic after seeing Battle City, I still never thought anyone rode a broomstick."

"I see the train." Harry shouted.

"Where?" Rebecca called out.

"Follow me!" and Harry fell into a dive, falling faster than he had ever done before and realised that the extra weight of Duke was going to cost him some agility. Harry headed straight for the twisted metal lump, but not landing. Something was off.

"Rebecca, don't land." He shouted, and then half turning he asked, "Duke, can you hold us steady?"

"Sure Harry." And Harry waited until Duke had a hold on the broom handle before reaching for his wand, not that he needed Duke to hold them steady, but even after an hour of flying Duke simply hadn't relaxed, tightly clinging to Harry.

After some thought Harry couldn't blame him, muggles were more likely to die from falling than wizards, and even going slower than Harry usually did didn't make up for the fact Duke couldn't see or feel the protections on the Firebolt and had no reason to trust them like Harry did.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry called out, with no real need to call up a happy memory, he was flying, and therefore he was happy. Not even the thought of Yugi's soul being lost was enough to dull the happiness of flying by much, and it wasn't real to him yet, even seeing Yami's body lying there as if asleep had really convinced him that one of his friends had lost their soul to a Dementor. His mind might know it to be true, his heart denied it.

The stag that burst from his wand made Duke jump, and Harry was again glad he had made Duke take the handle.

"Hello Prongs." Harry sighed, the sight of the stag brought forth a sad kind of joy, happiness because a Patronus emitted joy, but also regret that he would never met the real Prongs, his father.

The stag itself galloped down to the ruined train, lighting it up and making it easier to see, but not for long as it hurtled through the side of the train until it came out the other side, chasing something dark with a greenish glow. Not even the light of the Patronus lit it up.

"Is that a Dementor?" Duke whispered.

"No, not like one I've ever seen." But Harry's eyes narrowed, "It's more like a shadow." The creature's shape seemed to flicker, almost like a lava lamp, never being able of retaining any one shape.

"Harry, what is that?" Rebecca asked, hovering near them on her own broom. The Patronus, instead of chasing the thing off, was running circles around it, keeping it confined. The thing, whatever it was, didn't move very fast and was slowing down, but every time the Patronus came too close it would flinch away. Finally it stopped moving, quivering in one spot and the Stag snorted at it and thumped its leg against the air it was standing on.

"Hermione or Ron might know. I don't." Harry said.

"I thought you were the expert on dark magic." Duke teased.

"Please, if the muggles haven't located all the non-magical animals yet, how are the magical people going to locate all the magical creatures when most of them are far better at hiding? Most of the ones we do know is because they are either too big to miss, or like to play with, annoy or eat humans." Rebecca began ranting, Harry remaining quiet. So far Rebecca had leapt to his defence whenever Duke said something even slightly against him.

"Rebecca, why don't you take a picture? We can ask someone later." Harry asked finally, and Rebecca gave Duke a smug look.

"Do you always let girls defend you?" Duke asked, keeping his voice little move than a whisper while Rebecca fumbled with her backpack.

"Experience tells me that if I complain about a girl defending me then all the girls get really annoyed with me, it's just easier to distract them." Harry whispered back.

"Harry, I think you have too many girlfriends."

Harry laughed, "Try telling one of them that sometime, I'll stand back and watch the fireworks."

"Got it!" Rebecca cried, and quickly took a picture, the flash blinding them for a moment.

"Becs, you were meant to take a pic of the thing, not us." Duke complained, blinking the light away.

"I did, it's a magical camera, and lights up the whole area so you can get everything and you can even develop it so it's like a hologram."

"Where did it go?" Harry asked, the Patronus also seemed confused, and came back step by step to Harry, looking every possible way.

"It's gone?"

"Maybe it didn't like the flash."

"I'm going to land. We should check the train anyway."

* * *

Tea woke slowly. She was warm and glowy and didn't want to move. A strange soft blanket was wrapped around her.

It was the feeling of unfamiliarity that finally made her get up and look around. Or try to at least. She was cocooned in blankets, and it took her several moments to wiggle out of them before she could get up.

She ached slightly. "The train! Yami!" She cried out, and rushed out of the cave to look for her friend, then went flying as she tripped over said friend.

"Tea?" Yami asked, looking rather confused. "Are you alright?"

She dusted herself off and carefully got to her feet. Then looked in shock just beyond Yami. "Yami, where did the cave go?" She asked.

"What cave?" He turned around to look at what Tea was staring at, then glanced back at his frightened friend. "Tea, this isn't the sort of place you get caves in." There was quite literally nothing there, except if you included the rather pitiful pine tree drooping over the sun hardened soil.

"I thought… I woke up in a cave, wrapped in blankets. When I ran out I tripped over you Yami. Surely you saw…"

"Tea, I didn't see a thing. I didn't even see you arrive, at least not until you had tripped over me."

"Oh…" Tea's hand crept up to her throat to clutch at her necklace. "Sorry Yami."

He sighed. "Not your fault. Something strange is going on, we're nowhere near any train tracks."

Tea groaned. "Why does this stuff always happen to us?"

* * *

The train hadn't been pretty or very reassuring. It was almost completely empty, except for the luggage. It had taken them awhile but they did find Joey's, Tristan's, Tea's and Yami's bags. It helped that Joey had a red eyes black dragon key ring attracted to his, the glittering of the red glass eyes had catch Duke's attention and a little pack raiding had confirmed it.

The bags had each contained plenty of chocolate, much to Harry's relief, someone had remembered, and chances were Joey at least would have carried some on him.

The inside of the train was deformed, almost like battle scars, bits of metal and plastic had melted, in one compartment the floor was covered in sand and broken glass. It wasn't until they reached the other end of the train they realised half of the train was missing, there had been no engine room, no driver's cabin, and the link… the link was shattered like a piece of glass.

"Someone must have frozen it for it to break like that." Rebecca had said when she saw it.

Now they were flying in the direction of the ruins, hopefully their friends had headed that way, otherwise it was going to be a nightmare to find them, and it was already getting dark.

"We might miss them." Had been Rebecca's argument for stopping, but none of them really wanted to.

But it was getting cold, the wind chill factor meaning another layer of coldness and their height another. Harry could barely feel his hands anymore, and the only warm place on his body was his back where Duke insulated him. It had to be a whole lot worse for Rebecca.

"Okay, let's go down, we're not going to find them tonight."

* * *

Seto was pacing. He had gotten a lot of practice these past few days.

The fact that he barely had any room to pace wasn't lost on the other person in the room. Luckily Mokuba was used to his brother's moods, and was used to hiding his smiles.

They had been told not to leave the cabin several times, before being locked in when the captain had gotten annoyed at Seto's attitude.

It would be another two weeks before they docked anywhere but the chain of private islands that the small boat delivered to.

Why couldn't the ship just contact Kaiba Korps?

It would have been suspicious even if the Kaiba brothers weren't paranoid.

* * *

Ron was scanning Hermione's message, wishing he had paid more attention to her code.

Green ink… did that mean Harry was fine, no it wasn't that obvious. Blue was in serious danger. Purple was he had arrived at Hermione's. Green, what did green mean?

Hedwig had arrived with a ribbon from Harry?

Why did Hermione make everything so complicated?

Okay, so Hedwig had gone to Hermione. That was all fine and dandy apart from the fact he now had no idea where his best friend was… And Hermione left yesterday, so he had no idea where either of his best friends were.

He could always write to… the thought trailed off. He didn't know where any of his friends were, except vaguely.

The world seemed to swirl around him.

He was alone. Completely cut off from his friends. Their lives could be in danger, and he wouldn't know until... until they all returned to Hogwarts, and if it was a Harry Solo adventure, he would probably never know.

Right, he had been cut off before. Nothing ever happened over the summer holidays. His friends were fine, would be fine, for a given value of fine.

There was nothing he could do.

He was worrying about nothing, for no reason. They would be fine.

Maybe he was just bored… yes that had to be it. He had nothing to do so he was worrying about nothing.

With great reluctance he opened the book Hermione had loaned him for some light summer reading.

* * *

Wind rushing so hard he couldn't hear anything but his own heartbeat, but knew he was yelling in joy, Duke, after hours of flying had began to relax.

Then he spotted two tall blobs in the distance, and homed in on them.

Harry grinned as he dived, knowing he was going faster than he ever had before, and that Duke was screaming in his ear comments Harry hadn't even considered possible as Duke clutched the younger boy, and the two blobs came into focus standing defensively, Joey, with what had to be his wand, out ready and the other boy in a similar stance, standing at Joey's right shoulder, not that the second figure seemed to have a wand.

And with a grace that many envied, both on and off the field, Harry came to a sliding stop just a few feet away from Joey and Tristan.

"Hi Joey!" Harry grinned. He had done it, done the near impossible, travelled half way around the world and found one of his friends.

"Harry?" Joey looked stunned, Tristan equally so.

"Duke?"

"Couldn't let you have all the fun." Duke declared, his voice sounding a more than a little hoarse as he climbed off the broom stick. He turned to Harry, and swiped at Harry's head, "If you ever do such a bloody minded dive again when I'm riding they'll be picking up pieces of you in Tokyo."

Harry rolled it eyes, "We didn't even get that close to the ground!"

"Right…"

"Duke, believe him, Harry's come within millimetres of the ground without crashing; he was probably being safe since he had a passenger on board." Joey said.

Then all four turned as they heard a scream. "Becs!" Duke yelled, and dived for cover. Necessary as it turned out as Rebecca's flight path would have slammed her right into Duke. Instead she flew through the hole he left coming to a stop ten paces away.

Rebecca carefully got off her broom, sinking to the floor. "Harry Potter! I think you scarred me for life!"

Harry chuckled, still on a high, "But I've never been that fast before! I mean I knew because of my weight my dives are slower even if I'm a better seeker because without I can reach higher speeds when going against gravity, but I didn't…"

Joey laughed, "Harry, you need to breath."

"Becs, can I ride with you next time? I think it's safer than the speed junky." Duke said tiredly.

"Oh no, I'm not getting on a broom again for a very long time." Rebecca declared, "I think I'll stick with my cards and my computers."

"But what are the Ravenclaws going to do for chaser when one of their best won't play?" Harry asked teasingly.

"Harry? Are you okay? You're acting kinda weird." Joey asked when Rebecca seemed too shocked to reply.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment and then smiled slightly, "It's weird but I always feel free in the air, you know? And this is the first time that feeling of freedom hasn't left me as soon as I touched down. If we're fighting Dementors I need to remember the happiness as clearly as possible." His green eyes flicked open, and seemed to glow slightly, hardening, "But I thought our friends were in danger, so I'm here to help."

"And we probably need all the help we can get, Yami's been wigging out over since Yugi got taken in his place."

"Explain what happened." Harry asked, by Joey felt some of the burden rise, he knew it was silly, that Harry Potter was just a teenager, but he was a better leader than Joey would ever be. Anyway, he was used to taking orders from the short spiky haired guy, and Harry certainly fit.

The day was suddenly looking a whole lot better.

* * *

Mokuba frowned at the porthole. It was barely above sea level, but the waves only lapped it occasionally. A thick mist had descended, making the view less than useless.

The sounds of the boat had reduced to almost nil. Even the gentle noise of the calm sea seemed unnaturally quiet, almost as if the sound was being muffled. Mokuba glanced at his brother. "Big brother, I think there's something wrong."

Seto, lying on the small cot that he had claimed as he own glanced at Mokuba. "You mean other than the Captain of the boat being in on some plot against us?" Seto said in his usual harsh tones.

"Yes, listen." They held silent for a few moments, and the ship groaned slightly.

"It's too quiet. No movement." Mokuba waited, knowing his brother wasn't finished. "Well, now is as good a time as any. I wanted to wait until we saw land, but if we can contact the coast guard at least…"

Mokuba grinned, sliding off his cot and looking at the lock on the door. "Looks easy enough to pick." As Mokuba drew out one of several lock picks he always kept on his person. Both he and Ginny were past masters, and had exchanged more than a few tips and hints between them. It wasn't much use at Hogwarts, but no skill ever went to waste.

With a final click the lock was open, and Mokuba carefully opened the door, ignoring the hiss from Seto.

The corridor was empty.

* * *

"One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand. Five one thousand."

"Luna, why are you counting?" Ginny asked, looking up from her witch weekly magazine.

"Sorry Ginny. One Lois Lane. Two Lois Lane. Three Lois Lane."

"Luna!"

"Ginny!" Luna pouted, and closed her Quibbler. "I'll see you later Ginerva." And left Ginny feeling rather confused.

* * *

Far out to sea, on a little boat surrounded by increasingly dark mist, the Kaiba brothers broke into the bridge, to find it suspiciously empty.

The brothers quickly barricaded the door with what seemed like practiced efficiency.

Mokuba sat down on the chair with an air of stubbornness known well by most of his year mates, but merely got a raised eyebrow from his brother. That door wouldn't be opening any time soon.

Seto strode over to the navigation computers, only to find them dead. The power completely gone.

Leaving the useless machines alone for a moment he looked out the window, wondering if the silence below deck matched above.

The fog hid much, leaving only dark shapes.

"Mokuba." He called and in an instant his brother was beside him.

"Is that?" Mokuba whispered, his hand seeking out his brother's in a moment of fear.

The mist swirled, and Kaiba blamed the lack of coffee, as the mist seemed to take shape, the illusion, for what else could it be? Of galloping hoofs and a horse like shape, and glowing green eyes that seemed dead.

"I don't know."

Then a whimper from his brother, and a single word hissed with hatred and fear, "Dementor."

* * *

AN: I'm still not happy with this chapter, but if I don't post it soon then I'll never get to the next one, so here it is.

The following is a bit that doesn't really fit in the story, partly because Duke and Rebecca wouldn't have time to discuss Harry in this sort of detail, and by the time they get time, Duke will know Harry a little better. Also I like the idea of Rebecca saying "He's Harry Potter." Like that explains anything. I also think Rebecca isn't that observant, she has some large blind spots in her world view.

So here's an Omake:

"He's not dangerous, he is just very good at picking out if something wrong, and you can tell who is fighting with who if you watch Harry, he's the only one who really keeps track of it even inside the group. He barely ever fights with anyone, except maybe Malfoy but only when the fight is brought to him, or to defend someone else. It's survival because their group is at the centre of Gyffindor, and whenever they fight the rest of Gyffindor starts having bad days, and a few of them will pick fights."

"So… why is he here?"

"Because he's Harry Potter." Rebecca replied, as if that explained everything.

"Right and that means what?"

"He's either going to be the next Leader of the Light, or the next Dark Lord."

"I doubt the boy will join those who murdered his parents Rebecca." Her grandfather admonished.

"No, he won't. But that won't stop him becoming the next Dark Lord. He has power, people will follow him, but just because he'll be fighting against the current darkness doesn't mean that he won't become dark. He's ruthless, up to a point, he's one of the few people I know who would stand up to Yami and Kaiba, at the same time, and if it ever came to a point where Yami and Harry are against each other I have no idea who would win, or even who I would want to win."

"Rebecca you had better not be telling me we let one of the bad guys into my house."

"But he's not, he's Harry Potter."

"And you say that like it's meant to mean something."

"He's a hero, and not just because he stopped he-who-must-not-be-named when he was a baby, but it's what he is. He saved a girl in my year from a Basilisk, he's a leader, and I know there's a lot of leaders in his year, but that's part of what's so amazing about him, most of the Gyffindors will follow Harry before Yami, most of the Hufflepuffs follow either Yugi or Harry, the Ravenclaws tend to follow Kaiba, but those who don't fall into Harry's camp, and that leaves the Slytherins that are divided between Bakura and Kaiba, but that's only because it would probably get them killed if they sided with a Gryffindor."

Duke groaned, "This is the reason I didn't go to a boarding school, too many politics."

"But think about it, Yami, Kaiba and Bakura all want to lead, even Yugi wants to just so he can make sure everyone's alright, but Harry hates it, he would rather fade into the background, and he does fade a lot, but he's a good leader and he always does the right thing."

"I don't see where you're going with this Rebecca."

"There are five leaders in Harry's year, and four of them are far older than the rest. Do you know what makes Harry stand out?"

"Rebecca, get to the point already."

"He was famous so everyone wanted to know him, but he didn't want that fame, nearly every Wizarding child was ready to follow his lead, they expected to see either a hero, and would follow him because that's what you do when you have a hero in your midst, or a very powerful wizard who could do what ever he wanted. Instead there was Harry. No one could believe it. Remember when you first saw the boy who beat Pegasus and Kaiba? I bet you couldn't believe it either. But he's Harry Potter, so in his first year he makes the Quidditch team, wins in his first game, saves a girl from a troll, gets attacked in the forbidden forest, gets past all the traps guarding the philosopher's stone, stops a teacher from stealing it, stops he-who-must-not-be-named from returning, and is the reason why Gyffindor wins the house cup at the end of the year."

Now Duke and Professor Hawkins stared at her.

"Rebecca, please tell me your year wasn't that dangerous."

Rebecca snorted, something that didn't reassure her grandfather. "Don't worry, my year was pretty tame, he only thing I had to worry about was grades, petty girls and the prefect that thinks I shouldn't associate with Yugi and the rest of the gang, because they're 'dangerous'." She put air quotes around the word dangerous. "I'm pretty low on the radar; I mean being friends with Mokuba and Yugi means a certain sort of person might notice me, but on the social side I'm considered little more than a hanger on, but I'm safe because Yami, Yugi and Kaiba have all stood up for me at certain points, and no one wants to mess with those three at once."

Duke groaned, "Politics."

Rebecca hit him. "I'm safe there, really. Probably safer than if Harry wasn't there, simply because he attracts danger just as much as Yugi and Kaiba do, just a different sort of danger, so between the three of them any possible dangerous individuals will go after them first, and most of the organised dangers already have one of them as a target."

"So Harry's like Yugi."

Rebecca nodded, "To them choosing to do the right thing isn't a choice, but Harry has a much better understanding why people act the way they do, Yugi still expects everyone to really be like him inside, and that they just can't see that what they are doing is wrong. I think Harry sees people a lot more clearly than Yugi or even Yami does. I mean Yami can see strengths and weaknesses in a second, but Harry… I think Harry can see why they have those strengths and weaknesses; I think he can see what drives people."


End file.
